


Hold On

by adrienscroissant



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, BASED OFF THE MOVIES, Blood, Danger, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Love, Plot, Romance, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, The Death Cure, The Maze Runner - Freeform, The Scorch Trials - Freeform, Violence, WICKED | WCKD is Not Good, friendships, im not good with tags, newt X reader - Freeform, the death isn’t that major, theres a plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 10:22:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 64,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22968424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adrienscroissant/pseuds/adrienscroissant
Summary: Y/n is the third person to come up in the box and into the Glade. She can't remember anything before waking up in the box and neither can the two boys who pull her out.As time goes on more boys continue to come up in the box every month like clockwork, only remembering their names and nothing else.Three years later, Thomas comes up and does what no Glader has done before; survived a night in the Maze and killed a Griever. Thomas leads the Gladers out of the Maze and to what they all think is safety and the start of their new lives. Are they safe or is this just the beginning?Y/n and her friends will be put through difficult and grueling situations over the next few months, but not everyone can overcome these challenges. The question is: who will survive and who won't?*I do not own any of the Maze Runner movies or books. books - James Dashner, movies - Wes Ball*
Relationships: Newt (Maze Runner)/Reader, Newt (Maze Runner)/You
Comments: 4
Kudos: 90





	1. Chapter One: The Blonde Boy

My eyes shoot open as I sit up from lying on my back, gasping unsuccessfully for air. I turn over onto my side, putting both of my hands flat on the ground, beginning to cough. Water rises up through my throat and out of my mouth, dropping through the floor instead of pooling around my hands. 

I cough up the last of the water in my lungs before taking deep gulps of air, catching my breath before picking my head up to look around. 

I notice I'm in a small, dim metal cage, the only source of light being the blue fluorescent lights that move down on the outside of the cage as it quickly rises up. I look back down to my hands, my eyes widening as I notice the long drop below me.   
Picking my head up, I reach my hand out to grab onto any object I can use to lift myself up.   
Grabbing ahold of something cold, I pull myself up onto my wobbling legs, grabbing ahold of the same cold object with my other hand to steady myself. 

I brush my long h/c hair out of my face, looking at the object I'm holding onto. 

I squint and see it's a closed metal barrel, sitting next to several other barrels that are identical to the one I'm leaning on. I look to my right and see multiple boxes, pieces of wood, and pieces of metal.  
I slowly make my way towards them, glancing up as I walk.

I begin to panic as I watch the cage I'm in rushing to the ceiling at a very alarming speed.

Suddenly, just as the cage reaches the top, there's a loud buzzing noise and the cage jolts to a stop, sending me flying forwards. 

I put my hands out to catch myself from falling. However, I land on top of the metal pieces and a small, cold piece digs into the palm of my right hand. 

Letting out a cry of pain and hissing through clenched teeth, I sit up and quickly grab ahold of my right wrist, pulling my injured hand up and into the light. 

I look down to my hand and examine it the best I can in the dim lighting. I see the small piece of metal sitting deep inside my palm, dark red blood oozing out from the wound and down the white sleeve of my right arm, staining it dark red. 

I squeeze my eyes shut, not wanting to see the bloody sight and use my left hand to scoot myself backwards to the wall of the cage, leaning back against it. 

With a trembling hand, I pull my sleeve over my hand, keeping my injury hidden as best as I can.

Everything is silent and unmoving, and as I open my eyes and look to the top of the cage, my panic from moments earlier sets in again. I frantically look about, darting my eyes around the cage.

Panicking, I begin to breathe rapidly, Where am I? Who am I? Why am I here? Why can't I remember anything?

Suddenly, a bright, blinding light shines into the cage, my uninjured hand immediately flies up to cover my eyes from the light. 

Trembling with anxiety, I move myself further into the corner, attempting to hide myself away from anything on the outside of the box. 

It's silent and still, until a silhouette of someone's head pokes over the edge, peering down into the box I'm in. Then another head pokes over the edge to peer inside too.

"Do you see anyone, Newt?" one of the figures asks the other. 

The boy closest to me, Newt as the other boy called him, shakes his head. "No. But I'll go down for a better look."

My eyes widen and I frantically look around for something to defend myself with.   
Spotting a small scrap of metal, I quickly, but carefully, reach over and snatch it off the floor. I grip the bit of metal in my left hand as the boy who was closest to me jumps down into the box, causing it to shake. 

I pull my knees up to my chest and shakily point the sharp end of the metal towards the boy. 

I freeze and stare at him, without the sunlight shining behind him I can see him clearly. He's tall with dirty blonde hair, pale skin, and long skinny, but muscular arms.

"So? Is there someone down there?" the first voice asks again.

"Give me a bloody minute Alby, I just got down here." the blonde responds, and I just now notice his thick british accent.

Squinting his eyes before using his right hand to block the sun from his face, he looks around the box for anyone hiding in the dark corners. Like me.

He freezes as his eyes land on my figure in the corner. He stares at me for a moment, his mouth open slightly, before he snaps out of it.  
"It's a girl." he announces, stepping closer to me.

"A girl?" the other boys asks, leaning a little further into the cage.

"S-stay back." I warn, gripping my weapon tighter. "Don't you dare come near me."

The blonde boy, taken aback, slowly takes one step away from me. He furrows his brows, looking up to his friend as he stares down at us, they both glance at each other before turning their attention back to me.

"It's okay, we're not going to hurt you." he says calmly, putting his hands out in front of him. "My name's Newt, and the boy up there," Newt introduces, pointing up to the silhouette looking down at us, "is Alby."

"We won't hurt you." Alby says gently.

I glare up at Alby before looking back to Newt. "How am I supposed to know you won't hurt me? I don't even know you." I spit.

The blonde boy moves a little closer to me before crouching down. "Well, if you want to get to know us, you can start by trusting us." he says gently.

I stare at Newt as he stares back at me, his expression calming. His words and movements making him seem okay to trust.

After a couple seconds of debating wether I should trust them or not, I slowly lower the piece of metal in my hand, letting it fall to the floor.

Newt smiles before standing up again, reaching his hand out for me to grab ahold of. 

I stare at his outstretched hand for a moment before cautiously grasping it. Newt gently stands me up as Alby reaches his right hand down for me to grab.

I look up at the boy, his hair is shaved and he has dark skin, before looking down to his hand.

I awkwardly stare at it, unable to grasp it because of the object that is currently stuck in the palm of my right hand. I can feel the blood continuing to ooze out from the wound, causing me to feel dizzy and lightheaded.

"Well? Are you coming up or what?" Alby says with a slight chuckle.

I fumble with my once white, but now blood-stained, sleeve that's covering my right hand before sliding it up my arm, revealing my palm to Alby. 

His mouth gapes open as he stares at my wound, the metal sitting painfully deep inside.

"What's the holdup?" Newt ask, peering around my shoulder to see what the problem is. 

His eyes widen as he sees the gash. "Bloody hell! Quick, Alby, help me get her out of this bloody box." Newt exclaims, easily picking me up by my waist. 

He lifted me up while I used my left arm to pull myself up, as Alby helps me. 

Once I was out of the box Alby got me to my feet, holding onto my shoulders as I started to sway. My vision became blurry as I looked down to my palm, eyes widening as I saw the sight of it, the sunlight making it look much worse. Oh god I hate the sight of blood. 

"...okay?" one of the boys asked, but I couldn't tell which one.

"hm...?" I questioned, looking at both boys as they stand in front of me, they each have worried expressions on their faces.

Still swaying, I watch as Newt's lips move but no words come out. He then grasps both of my shoulders, but it all becomes to much for me. 

My eyes start to flutter closed as the darkness slowly begins to take over my vision, both of the boy's figures become blurry before my eyes roll into the back of my head and close completely.

The last thing I can remember before blacking out is Newt catching my body before it can hit the ground.


	2. Chapter Two: The Glade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y/n learns about the Glade and the two boys already there.

My eyes flutter open at the sound of voices talking in hushed tones.

"We need to wake her up and figure out if she remembers anything." a voice says calmly.

"Alby, we'll talk with her once she wakes up, just give her some time to rest." another argues.

I frown slightly, trying to recall what happened before I black out; I was in a box, I fell and cut my hand when it reached the top, I briefly met two boys who helped me out of the box, then I saw that the injury on my hand was worse than I thought. 

I quickly sit up and look at my hand. It's wrapped in layers of bandaging, but I'm still able to faintly see the blood seeping through those layers.

My sudden outburst causes Newt and Alby to jump. They turn their attention to me, sighing once they see that I'm awake.

"How are you feeling? Are you okay?" Newt asks, walking to the side of the bed I'm sitting up on. 

"Uh... yeah. I'm fine." I respond, examining the room around me, swinging my feet over the side of the bed.   
We're in a small wooden room, there's two chairs near the bed I'm on, which is pushed in the corner of the room, a table is placed on the left side of the bed. On top of the table there's a roll of bandages and a small, sharp blood-stained piece of metal on it. The room has one door and one window, letting light into the poorly built hut.

I turn my head back to Newt and Alby. "How did I get here?" I question, unable to remember anything from after I fainted. 

"Well, after you blacked out, Newt caught you just before you hit the ground." Alby explains, pointing to the blonde boy. "He carried you to this room and laid you on the bed. We figured that we should probably get that piece of metal out of your hand before you regained consciousness, so that's exactly what we did."

I avert my eyes down to my hand before looking back up at the two boys standing in front of me. "Thank you." I mumble. 

The two smile before nodding in response. 

After a few awkwardly silent moments, Alby breaks it. "So, can you remember anything? Your name? Your family? Friends? Life before you woke up in that box?" he asks, pulling one of the chairs in the room closer to the bed and sitting down on it.

Furrowing my brows, I look down, unable to remember anything.  
I feel tears running down my cheeks as I think about my family and friends that I no longer remember.

"Hey, hey, hey." Newt says, moving closer to me. "It's okay. It's okay." he says reassuringly, carefully grasping my hands with his larger warm ones.

I sniff, lifting my head up and looking into his chocolate brown eyes. 

"Do you at least remember your name?" he asks, trying to make me think of something else, which works for the time being.

Still frowning, I avert my eyes down to my hands that are still wrapped in his. "I- I don't know my name..." I stutter, trying to remain calm.  
I worriedly look back up to Newt and Alby, whose now standing beside the blonde.  
"W- why can't I remember my name? Why don't I have any of my memories?" I question.

"We don't know..." Alby sighs, sliding one of the chairs in front of me before sitting down. "Newt and I both came up in the box the same way; not being able to remember a thing."

I slowly look back to Newt. "Not even your names?" I ask, panicked.

The blonde boy slowly shakes his head. "We couldn't remember anything, but our names were the one thing that actually came back to us. You should remember yours in a day or two." Newt assures me, the warmth disappearing as he lets go of my hands.

Letting out a sigh of relief, I nod.   
After a couple moments of silence, I decide to change the subject. "Where are we anyways?"

Newt turns to look at Alby for a moment before turning back to me. "Come on. We'll show you." 

He and Alby both turn around and begin walking out the door.

I stay seated on the bed as Alby disappears out the door and around the corner, but Newt, stopping in the middle of the doorway once he realizes I'm not following, turns around.   
"Are you coming?" he asks, the corner of his lips tugging up slightly.

Gulping anxiously, I nod, getting off the bed and following behind the blonde as he turns back around and leads me outside.

I immediately move my hand in front of my face as we walk outside into the blinding sunlight, needing to blink a couple times so my eyes can adjust to the sudden change of light.

Once I'm able to see my surroundings clearly I gasp, my eyes widening.  
Lowering my hand away from my face and squinting, I look around completely dumbfounded. I'm standing in a large field of bright, green grass, there's a couple little huts built along the tree line of the grass field and a dense, lush forest. 

There's a total of four small, wooden buildings, counting the one I just came out of, already built. But what stands out the most in this place is the gigantic, towering stone walls that surround the entire place.

Newt chuckles. "Bloody crazy isn't it?"

Still taking in my surroundings I nod, my mouth hanging wide open.

"Don't worry you'll get used to it." Alby laughs, looking at my expression.

I shake my head, snapping out of my stunned state. "W- where are we?" I ask, puzzled.

"Don't know. But, Newt and I like to call it the Glade." Alby smirks, folding his arms.

I turn around, facing Alby with a questioning expression. "Why?"

"Eh, if this is our home now it needs a name." he shrugs, "I'm not to sure where 'Glade' comes from though, but it fits."

I laugh lightly before looking back to the towering walls. "What's out there?" I ask pointing towards a giant opening in the walls.

"We don't know yet. We haven't gone out there, but we've stood just outside the opening. It's just a long stone corridor that branches off in different spots." Newt explains.

I turn to look at Newt, confusion on my face. "Don't you want to know what's out there?" 

The blonde frowns, still staring at the opening. "Of course we do, but, it's just too risky right now."

Frowning, I look down to my hands. Staring at my blood-stained bandage.

After a minute of the three of us standing there, letting me take in everything, Newt sighs. "Welp, I bet your bloody starving, yeah?" he asks me, clapping his hands together.

With everything that has happened in the past hour or so, I've completely forgotten how hungry I actually was.

I nod rapidly, a smile forming on my face.  
Newt smiles back before turning around and motioning for me to follow.

The tall blonde boy leads me and Alby through the Glade, stopping at a shady area on the outskirts of the forest.

"You and Alby can stay here. I'll go get us something to eat." he says, smiling.

I nod, sitting down on the soft, green grass, before Newt walks away towards a small hut, which I assume is their kitchen.

"So," Alby says, turning to me and sitting down on my left. "Think you could get used to it?" 

"The Glade?" I laugh. "I mean, I kinda have to if we're stuck here in here. Don't think I have much of a choice huh?"

"I guess your right about that." he says, chuckling. 

"How long have you been here?" I ask.

"It's been two months today. Newt came up a month after I did. Then a month later, you." he says, looking out at the Glade in front of us.

I nod, looking down at the grass as I twirl the longer blades around my finger.

After a couple seconds of silence, I decide to break it. "Was it hard?" 

He furrows his brows, averting his eyes back to me. "Was what hard?"

"Being here all by yourself for a whole month."

"Yeah," he nods, frowning. "Especially when I didn't have anybody to help me out of that box. I had no clue what was going to happen or if I was going to be stuck here all alone for however long we do end up being here for. Each night was terrifying and lonely. I didn't know how long I could do it.  
"Then," he pauses, his frown deepening before turning into a small smile, "Newt came up. Which helped me out big time. I knew then that I wasn't going to be alone."

My lips pull up into a smile. I could never image how alone Alby felt for a month, not even knowing if he'd ever get company in such a scary place.

Suddenly, Newt walks up with different kinds of fruit in his arms, and a huge grin on his face. 

"Lunchtime!" he cheers.

I can't help but smirk, seeing him so happy about something. But then again, maybe he's just like that; happy about everything.

He hands us each an apple and an orange.  
"So, what did I miss?" he asks, taking a huge bite out of his own apple.

Alby and I both shrug.  
"Nothing much. We were just talking about what it was like when I got here."

I nod before taking a bite out of my own apple, the juices dripping down my chin before I wipe it away.

"Oh, that must've been tuff for you Alby, being all alone for a month. Remember when you pulled me out of the box?" Newt grins. "I was so confused, once I got out I ran-"

But, suddenly I begin to tune Newt out, staring at the grass in front of me, frowning as a word- no, a name pops into my head. I grab ahold of it before it could slip away for good.   
Y/n.  
That's my name. My name is y/n.

"Hello?" Newt says, waving his hand in the space I was staring at. "Earth to the new girl." he laughs. "You alright?"

I look to him, my eyes wide.

His expression quickly changes to worry. "Are you okay? Do you need to lie down?" he asks.

I suddenly smile. "I- I'm fine. It's just- I remembered my name. It's y/n." I say, my grin growing bigger as I jump to my feet, unable to hide my excitement.

Newt calms down, a smile growing on his face too as he and Alby both stand up with me.

Alby grins, gently slapping his hand on my back. "Congratulations y/n."

Newt nods. "Y/n." he says, looking at me with his brown eyes. "That's a beautiful name." he says grinning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this chapter :p  
> Next chapter will be posted Friday or Saturday, whichever lol.  
> Leave kudos so I know you like it :)


	3. Chapter Three: The New Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new Glader comes up...

{One month later}

"Y/n." I heard a thick british accent say.

Already knowing who the voice belongs to, I groan, turning over in my hammock, away from Newt while keeping my eyes closed.

"Y/n, come on." he says, poking me in the side causing me to flinch. "It's been a month since you first got here, which means the box is going to bring someone new up."

"Doesn't the box come up just before lunch?" I ask somewhat annoyed, keeping my eyes closed.

"Yes, but I know you want to eat breakfast because it's going to be hectic after the box comes up." he says. I can hear the smile on his face. 

It's amazing actually, how Newt and Alby have gotten to know me after only meeting me a month ago. I didn't expect them to become so close to me so quick. And Newt has even set up my hammock right beside his on the first night I was here.

I turn back over in my hammock to face him, opening my eyes. "It's creepy how well you two have gotten to know me after only a month." I smirk.

"We know almost everything about you y/n, especially me." he says matter of factly, folding his arms with a grin on his face.

"Oh do you now, Newt?" I ask, raising a brow.

He nods proudly. "I'll prove it to you sometime. Now come on Alby's waiting."

Groaning, I sit up and kick my legs over the side of my hammock, sliding my feet into my dirty shoes, tying the laces then getting up.

"Bloody Glade (y/n)." Newt says, raising his eyebrows.

I worriedly look down, patting my body down before looking back up to him with a puzzled expression. "What?" 

He smirks. "Your hair's a mess."

I roll my eyes, pushing his arm playfully. "You know, your breath wasn't too refreshing when you were waking me up." I say, using my fingers to brush out my hair.

He acts hurt before smirking and turning around, motioning for me to follow after him.

I finish brushing my hair before catching up with him, slowing down as I get to his side.

"Newt?" I ask, turning turning my head to look at him.

He hums, glancing to his left to look down at me.

"Prove to me that you know everything about me. You said you would." I beg, sticking out my bottom lip.

"Well, I didn't say when I would." he says. 

I frown, pushing his arm. "Newt, please." I beg, sticking my lip out, attempting to get my way.

He glances down to me one more time before smirking. "Okay. But, I'll only do it if you can catch me." he says taking off towards our table.

"Hey! That's not fair!" I shout, sprinting after him.   
I know it's no use, he can easily outrun me. Yeah I'm fast, but Newt is so much quicker. Every time we race, I'm never able to beat him.

I honestly don't know how I didn't see this race coming, everyday as were going to breakfast he would suddenly look over at me and say 'I'll beat you there.' before taking off at a full sprint, winning every time.

Once I get to the table I see Alby and Newt already sitting down eating, a plate of food sitting beside the blonde boy. 

"Newt that wasn't fair." I pout, crossing my arms.

"You had to have known that was coming y/n. I do it every bloody day." he laughs, pointing at the food across from him. "Come on I know your hungry."

"Fine." I sigh, sitting on the bench across from the two boys.

Alby looks at the two of us, confusion evident on his face. "What am I missing here?" he asks Newt.

Newt puts up his index finger as he swallows the bite of his apple he just took. After he finishes he puts his index finger down. "Earlier I told her that we knew almost everything about her, but I wouldn't tell her anything. Then, when we were walking over here I said I would do it if she caught me." he explains. "Which she didn't." he adds, smirking at me.

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

"Well we know that you eat. A lot." Alby smirks, eating an orange slice.

"Well I just happen to be hungry a lot." I pick up a bright red apple and stare at it. "Do we have anything other than a couple different kinds of fruits and vegetables to eat?" I whine.

"Nope." Newt replies. "And it's a good thing too, because if any of us tried to cook, we'd burn the whole bloody Glade down." he jokes.

"Ouch." Alby says, laughing as he acts hurt and I giggle at Newt's joke.

The blonde raises his eyebrows. "I don't know why you guys are laughing I'm being serious. Especially with you, y/n." he says pointing at me.

I immediately stop laughing, my mouth opening with shock. "Why me?" I questioned. "If anything your the fire hazard." I shoot back at him.

Newt's mouth drops open as he turns to Alby, who smirked and nodded. 

Newt opened his mouth to defend himself, but was cut off by a loud buzzing sound.

I jump, startled from the sudden loud noise. Quickly turning my head towards the buzzing, I get up, Newt and Alby doing the same.

"Is that the box's alarm?" I shout over the buzzing.

Newt and Alby both nod before taking off in the direction of the box. I try my best to keep up with both of them. I end up passing up Alby, but not Newt. He's the first one to the box, already lifting the roof of the cage up. 

Once I arrive he motions for me to lift the other side. 

Quickly following his orders, I rush to the metal handle and pull it up, opening the box completely.

Newt and I both get down onto our hands and knees to peer into the box as Alby jogs up behind us, doing the same.  
Inside there's another boy, whose just waking up. He has a shaved head like Alby, but the new boy has blonde hair and light skin.   
I tilt my head to get a better view of his face, and once I can see him the first thing I notice is his eyebrows. I have no idea how to even describe them, they're wild. The boy also has a stern glare glued to his face. 

He looks about fifteen, the same age as Newt, Alby, and I have decided we're around, judging by our looks.   
He blinks a couple times, adjusting to the bright light, before opening his eyes completely.

Newt looks over at me. "Stay up here." he says before jumping down into the box, startling the poor kid.

"G-Get away from me." The new boy stutters, glaring at Newt. 

"It's okay. We're not going to hurt you." Newt assures, motioning to himself then to Alby and I. 

This whole interaction so far reminds me of when I came up. The next thing Newt has to do is step a little closer.   
And, like I had just called, Newt stepped towards the boy, just a little.

My eyes flick to the boy's hands as they clench into fists, I also notice he begins to breathe quickly, clenching his jaw.

However, Newt doesn't seem to notice. He keeps moving forwards, towards the boy, which angers him further.

"Newt-" I try to warn, but suddenly get cut off by the new boy sweeping Newts feet out from under him.  
The blonde falls to the ground but before he can recover, the new boy jumps on top of him.

Alby and I quickly jump down into the box just as the muscular kid begins to punch Newt in the face. 

"Alby! Do something!" I exclaim, frantically looking around for something to hit the new arrival with. 

I look back to Newt as he struggles to protect his face from the boy beating him senseless.

I feel anger bubble up inside me as I listen to Newt's shouts for us to help, before I finally snap.   
I lunge at the new boy, screaming in anger, and end up forcefully shoving him off of Newt. 

Alby then runs over and smacks the boy over the head with a wooden plank, knocking him unconscious.

Breathing heavily, I get off the boy I just tackled and look to Newt, who's also lying on the cage floor groaning.

I walk over to him, my wobbling legs collapsing under me once I reach the blonde.   
I look at him, his face is completely bruised, bloodied, and swelling. As I gently move my hand along his arm I notice he also has a couple bruises on his arms from trying to block the blows he was receiving.

I bring my arm back up and gently brush a bloodied strand of his blonde hair out of his face, running my fingers through his hair.

"Is he okay?" Alby asks, looking down at Newt and I.

I glare at the boy that attacked him before sadly looking back to Newt. "Yeah..." I say weakly. "That- That asshole." I growl. "Newt was just trying to help his dumbass."

"Y/n, the kid's just scared. And Newt approaching him that quickly wasn't helping him." Alby said, looking down at me.

But I don't look back at him. How can Alby even defend him? He just beat the crap out of our best friend and all he has to say is that the boy was 'scared'?

"How could you even defend this kid?!" I exclaim, glaring up at him. "He beat the crap out of Newt and all you can say is that it's Newts fault and that the boy was just scared?!" I shout, standing up. "If you haven't noticed, Alby, we're all scared! We're all just as confused as that kid right there!" I point to the new boy lying unconscious on the ground.

"Y/n-"

"No! Don't y/n me! Just help me lift Newt out of here then get out of my face!" I shout, feeling warm, salty tears fall down my cheeks. Why am I crying? It's not like Newts dead.

I turn around and angrily walk back over to Newt, picking up one of his arms as Alby silently follows me and lifts the blonde boy's other arm.   
Newt groans in response as we lift him up to his feet.

I let go of him, making sure he's steady, before climbing out of the box.

I wipe my dirty hands on my shorts before turning back around, reaching down and hook my arms under Newts, using all my strength to pull the blonde up as Alby pushes him up from below.

Newt groans in pain once again as I finally lift him up out of the box, putting his right arm around my shoulder.

"Y/n..." he mumbles so quietly I could barely hear him.

"Shh. Don't try to talk, just hold on and stay awake, just until we get you to a bed." I tell him as I carry him to the medical hut.

Once we get there I push open the door and drag Newt to the bed in the corner, lying him down on it.

There's not a lot of medical supplies in here, only a couple band-aids, bandages, and other tools. None of us have any idea how to use the tools but Alby said a book came up when Newt did that explains everything we need to know about the bones, muscles, and basically everything else you would need to know about the human body.

I grab a cloth and look around for a bucket to fill with water.

Finding one under a table, I get back up and walk to the door, turning back to Newt. "Okay just, uh... stay put." 

He groans in response, clenching his fists. 

"Oh right, sorry... I'll be right back." I mumble, walking through the doorway and out to the pond next to the building.

I get down on my knees at the waters edge, leaning over and dunking the bucket into the cool water. After the bucket is filled I make my way back to the hut, walking in and seeing Newt squirming in pain on the bed, his fists still clenched.

I rush to the side of his bed, grabbing the cloth on the way and setting everything down on the bedside table.

"Newt. Hey, you need to relax." I say calmly, putting my hands over his fists. "I know it hurts, but I'm going to help."

He seems to relax, his fists opening. 

"Can you talk?" I ask, dunking the cloth into the water.

He parts his lips slightly, "Yeah." he whispers, letting out a breath.

"Okay. This will probably hurt." I warn, putting the cloth close to his face. He only nods.

I gently dab the rag on his face, trying to get rid of the blood. And after a couple minutes of Newt wincing and groaning in pain, and also me telling him it'll be over soon, I finished.

I pull him up into a sitting position and look at his face. It looks much better and cleaner than it did before, but he does have a big gash on his lip and just above his eye, which I covered with band-aids the best I could.

"Thanks y/n." he says softly, pulling me to him and hugging me. 

Taken aback, I hesitate for a moment before hugging him back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapters are shorter now but i’m making them longer in later chapters.


	4. Chapter Four: Welcome to the Glade

Newt pulls away from me after a couple seconds and smiles, letting me know that's he's fine.

I sigh sitting down next to him.

"What's wrong?" he asks adjusting his body so he's facing me.

"Nothing. It's just, after you passed out and after I got that kid off of you, Alby knocked him out and started saying that you were scaring the boy and that it was your fault your hurt." I explained, taking in a deep breath and letting it out before continuing. "And I guess I was already mad at that boy for beating you up, but Alby's words just got to me. I started yelling at him asking how he could even defend the kid, and I ended up telling him to just get out of my face."

Newt sighs, looking into my eyes. "You know it was my fault y/n. I approached him too fast and I must've spooked him, I mean he wakes up with no memory and a strange boy walks up to him. I just paid the bloody price for not being careful." he suddenly smirks at me, well tries to but gives up because of the pain. "Remember when I pulled you out of the box? You were about ready to attack me, well before you passed out."

I laugh softly. "Yeah. But I've already said sorry about that like twenty times, so you can't keep bringing that up."

He chuckles softly. "I know."

We sit there in silence for a couple minutes. The silence isn't awkward, it's comforting, just knowing that the other is there.

"How about we go and apologize to Alby." he suggests patting my knee. "Well, just you. I didn't do anything." he adds with a small grin on his face.

I roll my eyes playfully. "Yeah. I guess I need to." I sigh. 

We both get up and walk outside, searching the Glade for Alby.

"Where is he?" Newt asks, using his arm to block the sunlight from his bruised and swollen face.

"He's probably still in the box." I respond pointing towards the box.

Newt nods. "Good that."

I look up at him, puzzled. "Good that? Where did that come from?"

He shrugs. "It makes sense. You know 'Good that', your basically just agreeing with something."

I shake my head, laughing. "I don't think I'll ever understand what's going through your head, Newt."

"Good that." he jokes, grinning at me the best he can.

I smile. "Let's just go find Alby." I say, walking towards the box.

Newt follows close behind me as we walk across the Glade.   
We immediately spotted Alby as we peered over the edge and down into the box. He was facing away from us, kneeling in front of a crate, looking through its contents. In the middle of the box the new boy is still lying on the ground, unconscious.

"Alby?" Newt calls down to him.

At the sound of Newt calling his name, Alby quickly turns towards us. "Newt? Man are you okay?" he asks, worried. 

He stands up as Newt and I both jump down into the box.

"Yeah, I'm alright. It's just bloody sore." Newt assures him. "But," he continues, looking to me. "There was something else." 

I stare down blankly at my shoes, fidgeting my fingers.

Newt shoves my shoulder slightly, causing me to look up at him then to Alby. "I'm sorry Alby. I shouldn't have said any of those things, I was just angry at the new kid," I sigh, motioning towards the kid still lying on his back unconscious. "and I took it out on you. I know that it was partly Newt's fault, but, some of it was that kid's too." 

Alby chuckles. "I know you didn't really mean any of that y/n. And don't worry I forgive you." he assures me, patting my shoulder. "Now. Let's get everything out of the box, including the kid."

"Oh boy. This'll be fun." I mutter sarcastically.

{One month later}

"Y/n." a british accent calls from a distance, gradually getting closer to me as I lay trying to sleep in my hammock.

"Newt. Go away." I wine, swatting my hand in his direction.

"Nope." he says, popping the p, then blowing his repulsive breath directly at my face.

I instantly sit up, my face scrunched up in disgust. I jokingly start to gag at how horrible his breath smelt. 

"Damn you Newt. Your breath is vile, can't you wash it out?" 

He frowns, cupping his hand in front of his face, smelling his breath. He shrugs. "It's not that bad."

"That's disgusting Newt." I state as I get up out of my hammock, slipping on my shoes.

"Anyways, a new kid is coming up today, and I let you sleep in so there's no time for breakfast." he says, clapping his hands together.

"Great." I sigh. 

We both begin to walk towards the box to wait the couple extra minutes before it comes up. And as we get closer I see two figures already standing by the two doors that open when the box arrives; Gally and Alby. 

Gally remembered his name two days after he came up, we were all trying to find a good place for him to work when he suddenly stopped walking and started mumbling one name over and over: Gally. 

"Hey y/n." Gally says, looking down at me, his eyebrows scrunching together, making them look weirder than they already did.

I smile up at him then to Alby. "Hey Gally, Alby. Can I ask a question?" 

Alby furrows his brows. "Go ahead, anything to pass the time while we wait for the new boy."

"Well, speaking about the new boy." I start, fidgeting my fingers. "I was thinking that maybe I could be the one to go down and greet them first, you know a girl and not a big scary guy. Maybe it'll calm them down, I mean we definitely don't want anything like last month to happen again."

Alby thinks for a moment, contemplating if he should risk letting me down first to get beat up.

"No." Newt speaks up, looking directly at me.

"What?" I ask, slightly taken aback. I certainly thought it's a good idea.

"You heard me, I said no. We can't risk you getting attacked like I did." he says calmly, folding his arms and shaking his head.

I stand there, staring at the blonde. "Newt I won't get attacked like that, I know how to approach people. And you guys will be right there, any of you could easily jump down if things get out of hand."

Newt opens his mouth to protest but Alby cuts him off. "Just let her do it. She's right, seeing her could calm them down."

I nod, glancing at Newt before looking down to the box as it begins to buzz, bringing the next boy up into the Glade.

After a minute or two the buzzing stops and we all stare at the doors before Alby and Gally pull them up, opening them.   
Newt and I stare down as the doors open completely, and in the middle of the small cage, there's another boy. He's already sitting up, frantically looking around.

I suddenly crouch down on the ledge before jumping into the box, causing it to shake and the boy's attention to quickly move to me.   
Looking at him clearly, I can see that he's a korean boy with jet-black, perfect hair, and his figure is brawny.

"Where am I?" he growls, glaring at me.

I put my hands up in front of me, showing him that I'm not a threat. "We don't know where exactly." I say as calmly as possible.

"We? Who else is here?" he questions, looking up at the silhouette's of the three other boys. Spotting the others, he quickly looks back to me. "Who the fuck are they?" he asks before pausing. "W-Who the fuck am I? Why can't I remember anything?" 

I raise my eyebrows, surprised at how much this new boy has already cussed, however, I shake it off. "It's okay. None of us remember anything, only our names. Come with me and I'll explain everything we know." I tell him, reaching my hand out towards him.

He hesitantly reaches his hand up, grasping my small hand in his large one. 

With a grunt, I pull him up before looking up at the others, using my hand to shield my eyes from the sun. Gallys figure leans over the edge, reaching his hand down and pulling me up out of the box. And as I turn around, I see that the korean boy has already climbed out himself.

Newt steps up to the boy and puts his hand out. "The names Newt." he says smiling.

The new boy shakes his hand and turns to Alby and Gally as they introduce themselves before turning back to me.

I smile, shaking his hand. "And I'm y/n. Welcome to the Glade."

"The Glade?" the new boy asks. "What's the Glade?"

"This." I reply, gesturing my arm all around us. "This place is what we call the Glade. Alby will give you the tour after lunch, I bet your starving." I smile.

He nods before following behind Newt and I, Alby and Gally following behind the boy.

As we walk I glance back over my shoulder at the new boy. He's keeping his distance from us as he quietly looks around the Glade, his attention suddenly becomes glued to the gigantic opening in the towering walls.

"Lets make a bet." Newt suddenly whispers, startling me.

"What?" I whisper back to him, still watching the korean boy.

"I bet that the new boy is going to get himself into trouble today." he smirks.

"What if your right?" I question, folding my arms across my chest, looking at him.

He thinks for a moment before grinning at me. "If I'm right, you have to work double in the gardens while I take a break, until the next boy comes up."

I think about it for a moment, glancing back at the new boy. He doesn't look like a trouble maker, he should be able to behave himself for a day. 

Grinning, I look back to Newt.  
"Deal." I challenge, sticking out my hand.

He grins, firmly grasping my hand and shaking it. "Can't wait to win."

I roll my eyes. "Sure."

Newt and I quiet down as we all approach our regular tables. I sit down and the korean boy sits next to me. Alby sits down across from us as Newt and Gally walk to the kitchen to get all of us food. 

They come back a couple minutes later with the same thing we always eat: Apples, oranges, pears, and peaches. Newt tosses me an orange before sliding onto the seat on the other side of me, taking a bite out of his usual apple.

We all eat in silence, the new boy nervously looking around, barely touching his orange.

"Okay," I began, wiping my hands off on my pants after finishing my orange. "Alby you should get on with the new boys tour, so we can find a job for him." 

Nodding, Alby and the new boy stand up. They begin to talk, but their voices fade as they get further away.

"What do you think his job will be?" Newt asks, his eyes locked on the koreans back as him and Alby walk away.

"Maybe he'll be a builder like Gally." I shrug.

"Or a track-hoe like you and Newt." Gally grins. "Maybe we can have three people picking flowers all day." he jokes.

"Shut up Gally. We don't "pick flowers", we grow and gather the food you were just eating."

"Oh boy, I just love eating fruit every day of my life." he mutters sarcastically, looking at the apple core in his hand.

I roll my eyes. "Then maybe you'd like to change jobs and go kill some of those animals we have." I pause. "Hey, maybe that'll be his job."

"He doesn't look like the kind of boy to kill an innocent pig." Newt said shaking his head.

"He might have to be, I want something other than fruit." Gally says, setting his apple core on the table. "I've seriously only eaten apples and a couple other vegetables. I'm tired-"

"Whoa, whoa, Gally, shh." I suddenly cut him off, holding up my index finger. It's quiet before I hear it again; someone yelling.

Newt and Gally hear it this time and they both slowly get up. I quickly jump up and begin running towards the South doors, in the direction of the yelling. Newt catches up to me as we get closer to the doors. I can only see one person, which could only be Alby, standing in front of the corridor, shouting at something through the doors. 

"What's going on?" I ask as I reach Alby, looking down the long, stone corridor.   
I notice the new boy, he's about halfway down the large opening. 

Getting my answer, I groan, rolling my eyes and breaking out into a sprint towards the boy.   
Once I reach him I grasp his shoulder from behind, spinning him around. 

"What do you think your doing?!" I question as I attempt to pull him back to the Glade. 

"I want to know what's out here! Don't you!?" he exclaims.

I stop, looking down at my feet before turning around and looking at him. "So what if I do? We don't know what's further out there, and we can't risk losing any of each other."

"Come on. If something was really out there, wouldn't it have come into the Glade by now?" he urges.

I look back towards the entrance into the Glade, Newt, Gally, and Alby are all waiting. 

"Come on." he pressed. 

I turn my head back to him, nodding. "Okay. Let's go."

He smirks before taking off down the corridor with me following behind him. I can hear the others shouting for us to stop and come back, but we keep running.

We reach the corner where the path splits off, right and left. The new boy glances back to me before turning right around the corner. 

Gulping anxiously, I jog around the corner, frowning when I notice it's the same long, stone corridor as the other.

"What the hell?" I mumbled as my jog slows down to a walk.

I look around at the crumbling walls surrounding me. There's long green ivy covering the towering walls, almost reaching the top. The long passage is eerie and quiet, the only sound are our footsteps and the constant bugs buzzing around.

We continue walking down the corridor, occasionally stepping over fallen ivy, until we get to another turn. I turn left around the corner and stop, it's exactly the same as the last corridor we were just in.

The boy walks around me and frowns.  
"This is so boring. It's just a bunch of turns that lead to another corridor that looks exactly the same."

I look down at my hands, trying to think of what this place could be. This place, I remember something like it...  
It suddenly clicks. "A maze..." I mumble.

"A what?" the korean boy asks.

I look up at him, grinning. "It's a maze. We're in a maze, and I'm guessing the Glade is the center."

I look up, the sun is about to touch the top of the walls. I look at the new boy. "We have to go." I say, frantically turning around and jogging down the corridor.

"What? Why? Don't you want to just get out of here?" he asks, catching up to me.

"I would like to get out of here, yes. But, the doors are going to close soon and I don't want to get stuck out here at night." I tell him, turning the last corner. 

I smile as I see the boys at the end, excited to tell them what we've figured out.

"What's out here?" the new boy questions.

I turn my head to face him while I jog. "Don't know, and quiet frankly I don't want to figure it out. But, during the night, we can hear things out here screeching."

He frowns, facing forward as I do the same.   
We slow down once we get inside the Glade, leaving the Maze behind us for now.

Alby grasps my shoulder. "What did you see out there?" he asks.

I grin widely, looking back at him and the other boys. "It's a Maze. This corridor branches off into many others. And the Glade must be the center." I explain.

Alby nods, opening his mouth to say something, however, a loud rumbling cuts him off. He takes his hand off my shoulder as I turn around to watch the Maze doors close, a gust of wind blowing at us causing my hair to fly around my face.

I swipe h/c strands of hair out of my face, watching as the doors groan one last time for the day before they shut with a loud bang.

"Alright. That's enough excitement for one day. Let's head to bed, we'll talk about what you two saw out there tomorrow." Alby announces.

The four of us nod before heading to our hammocks, Gally helping the new boy set his hammock up near ours.

I let out a long sigh as I get comfortable in my hammock, pulling my blanket over my shoulders. 

"Y/n." Newt whispers from the hammock right beside me.

"Yeah?" I ask, not bothering to sit up.

"I won the bet." I can hear the smirk on his face. "Now you gotta work extra."

Groaning, I let out a frustrated huff. "Whatever." I sigh, too tired to whine about it.

He chuckles as I close my eyes, exhaustion taking over my body.

"Night y/n." Newt whispers before I can fall asleep.

I smile. "Goodnight Newt."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know these chapters are kinda boring but i promise they’ll get longer and won’t be as boring


	5. Chapter Five: George

{Five months later}

I'm walking down a quiet, white hallway, being led by a man with short black hair. He has a navy blue shirt on with tiny letters written in caps, however, the letters are too small for me to read. 

The only sounds are our footsteps and the buzzing white fluorescent lights above us.

My breath picks up as we reach a door at the end of the hall, the man scans his keycard before the card reader buzzed and turns green. He pushes the door open and leads me inside.

It's dark until the lights are turned on, revealing a desk, a chair, and three large windows, each window is on a different wall, and on the other side of the glass is an empty white room. The only thing on the desk is a computer, it's screen black.

"Sit down." the man commands, pushing me towards the desk.

I obediently sit down in the chair and face the screen, I hear the door shut behind me before the screen suddenly turns on. 

The image on the screen is dark but I can still see figures and their movements. There's five people walking down a hallway with bars on each side of them.

Suddenly, a figure on the other side of the bars runs out of the darkness straight towards them, then another comes, then another, until there's a swarm of the crazy people pushing against the bars, trying to grab ahold of the others. 

I watch the scene play out in front of me, looking at the people's terrified faces, I start yelling for anyone to help them. 

Suddenly, the computer screen and lights turn off, leaving me in the pitch black room, alone. 

I stop yelling and my breathing picks up as I get up and feel around the room, searching for a light switch. 

I realize that I've made my way to the window in front of the desk when a loud thud comes from in front of me, the window begins to wobble from something hitting it, causing me to yelp and fall backwards onto my butt.

Looking up, I see that a light has turned on in the room on the other side of the window. 

My eyes widen and my heart begins to pound rapidly, beating against my chest so hard it feels as if it'll break through my ribs. 

Directly on the other side of the window there's a man- no. A monster. He has patches of hair that've been pulled out and the hair that's still there is sticking to his forehead with sweat. His eyes are wide and dark, black veins run all across his pale skin, he has scratches all over his body, and his clothes are torn. 

Suddenly, there's another thud on the window to my right and left, one is another man and the other is a woman, both in the same condition as the first. 

The three of them repeatedly slam their palms against the glass as they begin to shriek.

I put my hands over my ears, backup into a corner, and shutting my eyes tight. 

They stop screeching and begin to talk quickly, telling me to help them, or kill them.   
They tell me that I'll be just like them, crazed and begging for death. 

I can't take it, I begin to beg them to stop, which turns into screaming.

With a loud gasp, I jolt up into a sitting position in my hammock, panting heavily. 

I look at my shaking hands, before looking back up, staring blankly in front of me.

"Y/n?" someone to my left whispers.

I quickly look to the side, only to see Newt sitting up in his hammock, the moonlight shining down on him and the rest of the Glade, his face cast in a slight shadow, but not enough to darken his entire face.

"Are you okay?" he worriedly asks. 

Gulping nervously, I nod. Closing my eyes and rubbing my face with my hands.  
"It was just a nightmare. I'm sorry if I woke you up." I apologize, glancing to my right, making sure I didn't wake Minho up.

"It's okay y/n. I've been up." he responds, yawning. 

But, by his messy hair and how he just yawned, I can tell he's lying.

"You don't have to lie to me Newt, I can tell you've been asleep." I smile, shaking my head.

He chuckles. "Okay, but since I'm already up," he says, getting out of his hammock and sitting down in my hammock with me. "Do you want to tell me what happened?"

I sigh, keeping quiet for a moment before beginning. "I was in a completely white room, sitting at a desk with a computer on it. There were three large windows in front of me, to my left, and to my right. A video began to play on the computer, there were kids with bars all around them, and on the other side of the bars there were these people frantically trying to grab them. Suddenly, everything turned off, I got up and felt around until something hit the window in front of me and I fell. I looked up and there were these monsters on the other side of the windows around the room." I paused taking a deep and shaky breath. Newt puts his hand on my arm, comforting me.  
"The man on the other side had this crazed look in his dark, black eyes. He was a mess, his clothes were torn and his hair was ripped out in patches, and he had these black veins all over his body. They started telling me that I'll be like them, begging for death." I stop and begin to silently cry, the thought of me begging for someone else to kill me was horrible to think about.

Newt pulls me into his arms, gently rubbing my arm. "It's okay, y/n. It was just a nightmare, you'll never end up like that." 

He continues to rub my arm as I slowly drift into a dreamless sleep.

•••

"Hey. Shank." someone says to my right while poking my cheek. 

With my eyes still closed, I scrunch my face, turning away from them. But, as they continue to poke my face, I open my eyes and glare at the figure above me: Minho.

"May I help you?" I question, stretching my arms, and immediately noticing the empty space beside me. I glance to my left and see Newt sleeping in his own hammock. He must've moved after I fell asleep.

"Let's go y/n, we have to run." Minho says, tugging on my arm. 

"Why don't you get Newt up first?" I ask, pulling my arm away and facing Newt's direction, slinging my arm over the side of my hammock.

He sighs. "You asked for this." he moves behind me before quickly flipping my hammock over, causing me to fall out onto the ground.

"Minho! You dumb shank!" I shout, standing up and dusting myself off before crossing my arms, glaring at him as he laughs.

I roll my eyes and turn around to Newts hammock, taking a few steps forward to stand directly beside it as Minho stands beside me.

We stare down at him as he snores quite loudly, one of his arms above his head while the other pushes against his cheek.

"How is it possible for someone to snore that shucking loud?" I asks, looking down at Newt.

"Move it shank. Let the master do his work." he says, pushing me back behind him then cracking his knuckles.

"Stop calling me shank." I tell him as I look over his shoulder. 

He slowly closes Newt's mouth and plugs his nose. The blonde boy stays still for a second before he squirms around, opening his eyes.

I laugh before swatting Minho's hands away from Newt. "Okay that's enough, I think he's awake."

Newt bolts upright in his hammock, glaring at me and Minho as we laugh. "What the bloody hell was that for?" 

Minho begins to walk away, "Time to get up!" he shouts over his shoulder before finally leaving.

Newt swings his legs over the side of the hammock, tiredly looking up at me. "How'd he wake you up?"

"Tipped my hammock over." I grinned.

"Sounds better than not breathing." he smirks.

Grinning, I shake my head. "Come on. We better go get ready before the big baby loses his patience again." With that, I turn and walk to the map room to get ready.

The day after Minho came up in the box him, Newt, and I all went out into the Maze and searched it.   
We realized that it changes at night, and it's gigantic, so, we started mapping it. We also assigned a job for the people who wanted to go and map the Maze, they're the Runners. So far it's only Minho, Newt, George, and I, the rest work in the Glade.

I quickly slip on black shorts, a cream colored t-shirt, my running shoes, and my pack for the day, which consists of water, a sandwich, an apple, and a small knife. We've never seen anything out in the Maze, yet. But, we do want to be prepared, just incase we run into the monsters we hear at night.

I jog towards the closed Maze doors where the boys are already waiting for me.

"And, last one. As always." Minho smirks, shaking his head.

I roll my eyes. "Har, har. It doesn't even matter, the doors aren't open yet." 

And as if on cue, the doors begin to rumble as they slowly open. Minho looks at me and raises his eyebrows. 

I sigh, putting my hair into a ponytail. 

"Alright," Minho announces once the doors are open completely. "Y/n, your with Newt. George, your with me."

We all nod before taking off in a full sprint down the first corridor, splitting off into our two groups at the first crossroad.

•••

"Come on y/n. Only a couple more turns left." Newt calls over his shoulder. 

"It's just a little harder to keep up with you." I groan, attempting to sprint a little faster to catch up to the blonde boy.

"Aw, you can't be tired already." He teases, I can hear the smirk on his face.

"I'm not tired, Newt. And it's not my fault you have longer legs than me. I'm like the shortest in the Glade." I complain as he slows down a little, letting me catch up.

"You are the shortest in the Glade." He grins as we reach the Glade, finally stopping. 

I sit down, sticking my legs out straight and staring down at the grass as I catch my breath.

"I'm gonna tell Minho that you could barely make it back to the Glade." Newt says in a joking tone.

I glance up at him. "You wouldn't."

He raises his eyebrows. "Oh really? I think I would." 

I scowl at him. It shouldn't really matter that much, but if Minho found out I got tired after a simple run, I'd never hear the end of it.

"Okay, let's make a deal. If you catch me, I won't tell him anything." He smirks.

I stay silent for a moment.

"Fine." I reply before quickly sitting up and trying to touch him, but he's to quick. 

He jumps back, and begins to back up.  
"Come on y/n. You've gotta try bloody harder than that." he smirks before turning on his heals and sprinting into the deadheads. 

I groan, getting to my feet before sprinting after him.

After running through the thick forest for about two minutes I begin to slow down, nervously looking around me.

"Newt!" I shout, cupping my hands around my mouth. "This isn't funny anymore! You can come out! I give up!" But there's just silence. I drop my hands to my sides, anxiously glancing around the forest.

"Newt?" I ask quieter this time. 

I turn around and jump, before sighing in relief. "George, you scared me. When did you and Minho get back?"

He just continues to stare at me, taking rapid breaths in through his nose while his entire body shakes.

I glance down to his hands; they're clenched into tight fists, his knuckles white.

"George, are you okay?" I cautiously ask before he suddenly leaps at me, knocking me down to the forest floor, my head barely missing an old log. 

He immediately sits on top of my stomach, his hands roughly grabbing my wrists. Sticks snap as I struggle underneath him, attempting to escape his grip.

With wide eyes, I stare up at him. His brown eyes are wide and bloodshot, and there's saliva dripping down his chin from his mouth, dripping down onto my shirt, causing me to scrunch my face up in disgust.

"They lied to us! They tricked us, y/n! All of us!" He shouts in my face. 

I wince in pain as he digs his fingernails deeper into my wrist.

"Newt! Minho! Gally!" I shout, desperate for anyone's help.

George moves my hands under his knees, holding them down as he puts his hands around my neck and pushes down, choking me.

"This place isn't what we think it is y/n." he whispers, pushing down harder.

I desperately try to gasp for air, but I can't. My lungs begin to burn from the lack of oxygen, and black dots dance around my vision.

Before the darkness takes over completely, I hear people shouting, and a weight leaving my chest and throat.   
I take in a gasp of cool, refreshing air before I finally blackout.

•••

My eyes flutter open, only to find myself staring at a dark wooden ceiling, lying on a bed. 

I attempt to take a breath, however, it feels as if someone is squeezing my throat, making it difficult to breath. 

My eyes widen as I frantically take deep breaths, some air reaching my lungs. My arms reach for my neck as I begin to hyperventilate.

"Y/n! Y/n! It's okay calm down." a british accent reassures me. 

I glance to my right to see Newt, he gently grabs both of my arms, keeping them from grabbing my neck. 

"Your neck needs to heal, and you grabbing it won't help."

I frown, staring blankly in front of me, watching the dark shadows that the candle's flame makes as it dances on the wall, before glancing back at Newt.

"What... happened?" I ask, my voice hoarse and raspy.

He sighs. "George attacked you in the forest. He was choking you when Minho, Gally, and I got there, so we knocked him unconscious before bringing your here."

He looks into my wide eyes, and as I slowly start to remember what happened before Newt and the others got there. 

I begin to worry about George, he and I aren't very close like I am with the others, but I still care about him.

I gently clear my throat before speaking. "Where is... he?" I ask, my throat burning.

"Don't worry, we brought him into the homestead. We don't know what's wrong with him, but we figured we should wait until you woke up before we did anything." he said.

"How long... was I out?" I question, my voice feeling slightly better.

"Only a couple hours, but you really need to stop bloody talking. You understand?" he replies, raising his eyebrows at me.

I laugh lightly through my nose before nodding. He smiles, shaking his head, before standing up from the chair he'd been sitting on beside my bed. "Right, well, I'll go and get you some water to help soothe your throat. Don't talk while I'm gone." 

With that he walks out of my room. Did he really just tell me not to talk? Who would I even talk with? Myself? 

Just then Minho peers into the room before walking in completely. Oh right, that's what he meant.

"Heya shank. I see your finally awake." he smiles, taking a seat on the chair Newt was sitting on.

I nod, staying silent. He looks at me confused, leaning back in the chair and crossing his arms. 

"Did you lose your voice, because thank God if you did, your annoying." he jokes, smirking at me.

"You shank." I say, playfully rolling my eyes, and completely going against what Newt had told me not to do. 

"Ah there she is." he grins. "How was your beauty sleep?"

I smile, shaking my head. "It was just peachy."

Just then Newt walks in with a cup of water, grinning widely, and I can't help but smile. 

He walks to the side of my bed, putting the water down on the bedside table before helping me sit up.

"I think she can do that on her own shank." Minho says to Newt, leaning back in the chair and putting his feet up on the edge of my bed, closing his eyes.

I look up at Newt before he turns around to grab my water. "I'm just trying to help."  
Newt turns back around and hands me the cup of water before pulling up another chair from the corner of the room. "Once your done we'll go find Alby before heading to the homestead to check up on George." he says. "Sound good?"

I glance at Minho as he gives Newt a lazy thumbs up, and Newt looks at me as I nod slightly before I take a sip of the cool, refreshing water. It feels nice as the liquid goes down my throat, momentarily taking the burning sensation away.

After a couple more sips I finish the water, setting it down beside the candle on the beside table.

The three of us sit in silence for a couple minutes, Minho keeping his eyes closed, Newt staring down at his hands, and I stare blankly ahead of me.

Suddenly the door opens, causing all of us to look in the direction. A boy I've never met before steps through the doorway with Clint, our Med-jack, following behind him.

"Oh hey y/n. How was your rest?" Clint asks, shutting the door behind him.

I smile. "Fine, but, who's this?" I ask, the smile leaving my face.

"This is the new Greenie. He's trying out as a Med-jack. But, Alby wanted me to come get you guys. He says it's serious."

"What's wrong?" Newt asks, quickly standing up.

"I don't know man. He'll tell us when we get there." Clint shrugs.

I quickly kick off the blanket covering my body, wanting to get out of here fast. I hate being stuck on a medical bed, not able to do anything.

I hop of the bed and the four of us follow Clint to the homestead, where Alby is already impatiently waiting outside the doors.

"What's wrong Alby?" Newt asks, getting to Alby first.

"It's George."

I furrow my brows. "What happened to him?"

Alby closes his eyes and looks down. "He's acting really weird, so we had to tie him to the bed. Just follow me and be careful." he says before turning around and walking into the homestead.

Newt and I share a nervous glance before he follows Alby, then me, Minho, Clint, and then the Greenie. All of us sticking close together.

Alby opens one of the doors on the first floor before gasping.

I peek inside and notice the rope lying on the ground and the empty bed where George should be laying.

Alby curses before calling out, "George!"

Suddenly, a bang comes from upstairs. I jump and grab onto the back of Newt's sweater as we all walk towards the noise. I know dumb decision right?

We get to the bottom of the stairs and look to the top, and my heart drops. 

There's a figure's silhouette being lit up by the moonlight shining in from a nearby window. He's just standing there, swaying slightly.

"George?" Newt asks hesitantly.

The figure stays still for a couple seconds before suddenly sprinting down the stairs, screaming.

We turn and run to the door, running through and out into the open Glade.

George follows us, and once the moonlight shines on him, and as I turn around, I notice his torn clothes and completely black eyes. It reminds me of those monsters from my nightmare.

We all stop in the middle of the Glade as George continues to sprint towards us, and just as he's about to grab ahold of Minho, Minho twists his arm around and shoves him down to the ground.   
He sits down on George's back and holds his arms behind his back.

"George! Snap out of it!" Newt shouts, helping Minho hold George down.

George continues to thrash and scream under the two boys, and suddenly, he shoves both Newt and Minho off of him. 

I glance around and notice that all the other boys have gathered around us, watching their friend go insane.

Before any of us can grab George, he pounces on top of a boy, clawing at his face.

We all stand frozen, horrified by what's happening in front of us.

Suddenly, someone runs to the center of the circle carrying a long, sharpened stick, screaming like crazy. 

Before I can clearly see who it is, they ram the stick through George's neck, saving the boy bleeding underneath him. 

My eyes widen and I cover my mouth with my trembling hand, unable to look away from George as he coughs up blood before slumping over the boy below him.

Everyone stares at the boy lying dead on the ground with wide eyes. Nobody says a thing, and nobody moves. Not even the boy still lying underneath him, who covers his left eye with his hand, dark red blood seeping through the cracks between his fingers, and stares up at George with his good eye.

As tears threaten to spill from my eyes, I glance at the boy who did it: Alby. Alby was the one who stabbed George in the neck. Alby was the one that killed George.

I look back down at George as the blood pools on the grass around him and the boy lying below. 

A couple silent moments later, someone finally does something. This causes me to turn back around and face the scene again. 

I watch as Nick helps the poor boy out from underneath George, before the same Glader kneels beside George's body. He lifts his shirt up and reveals dark veins running along dead boys torso, which all meet up at one point on his stomach.

"Was he stung by something?" a boy in the crowd asks weakly.

Alby kneels beside Nick and inspects the sting. 

He looks up at all of us and nods before standing up. "We can't keep him out here in the middle of the Glade."

"What do we do with him?" another boy asks.

Alby thinks for a moment, glancing around the Glade before his eyes land on the forest. "We'll bury him deep in the forest. Tonight." 

And with Alby's orders, a couple of boys got a stretcher made out of a sheet and branches from the med-jack hut, putting George on it before walking silently into the forest. 

We all watch as the boys disappeared into the woods, before turning back to Alby. I stare at him as small tears roll down my cheeks, and suddenly he looks up from the ground and into my eyes. Staring back into his eyes, I can see the sadness inside him that he doesn't want anyone else to see. 

Breaking eye contact with me, he clears his throat. "Everyone head to bed. We'll talk about everything tomorrow."

As the Gladers all begin to silently walk to their hammocks, I stay still, staring at the bloody spot of grass where George had been lying dead moments before. The dark red blood shining in the moonlight.

I hear someone walking up behind me, stopping right beside me.   
"Y/n." He says in a low accented voice, gently grasping my wrist.

I take a deep breath, letting it out before finally turning around. 

We stare at each other for a moment before walking back to our hammocks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys have been staying safe! This chapter has a little part from one of the books in it, hope your enjoying it :)


	6. Chapter Six: The Incident

{Four months later}

I groan, sitting up and rubbing my eyes with my right hand.   
I stare in a daze in front of me at the tree my hammock is tied to.

"Ah finally, the princess has awaken." Minho says to my right. 

I turn, glaring at him as he lays back in his hammock with his hands behind his head. 

Rolling my eyes, I lie back down in my hammock.  
"I'm glad Alby gave us this day off, but, it gets really boring sometimes." I sigh, throwing my hands up in the air.

Minho chuckles. "I bet you don't think it's boring when you get to sit around with Newt all day."

I immediately sit back up and glare at him before looking at the blonde's empty hammock. "Where is Newt?" I ask, looking around.

"No clue. He was gone when I woke up. But, if you ask me he's been acting really weird and distant lately." he shrugs.

I frown, getting out of my hammock, putting my shoes on, and grab a new set of clothes.

"And where are you going?" Minho questions.

"I'm gonna go find him, and see what's wrong." and with that, I walk off to get changed before looking for Newt.

As I walk to the small changing hut Gally built, I think about what Minho said. Newt hasn't been himself lately. He's been really distant and moody for the past couple days. Whenever Minho or I would try talking to him while running the Maze, he'd shrug us off, running ahead of us. Or during dinner he'd finish his food before everyone, then go straight to his hammock and lie down.

I reach the hut and quickly lock the door, taking off my black pants and white shirt, before slipping on tan shorts and a blue tank-top. 

I walk back out into the Glade, putting my hands on my hips, I look around for any place Newt could be hiding. 

I sigh as my eyes land on the Deadheads. Minho named the forest the Deadheads after we had to bury George and another boy in there. And because nobody likes to go in there, I have a feeling that's exactly where Newt is hiding.

Once I reach the tree line I stop, hesitating for a moment as I stare into the shaded forest. Pushing away my fear, I walk into the forest.

"Newt!" I call out, stepping over branches and rocks. "Can we talk?!"

I continue to call out for Newt until I hear rustling up in a tree to my right.   
I freeze, turning to the right and walking up to a large oak tree, it's roots digging up out of the ground.

"Newt. I know your up there." I say calmly. Looking up into the tree, I see him sitting on a thick branch not too far up. 

"Just go y/n." he mumbled.

"No. And if your not coming down, then I'm coming up." I said as I begin to climb.

Once I reach the branch he's on, I sit in front of him, staring at him as he looks to the left.

"Newt." I start, reaching for his arm and gently touching it. "Please tell me what's wrong."

He sighs before turning to look at me. "It's just been so confusing lately. We're a group of teenagers stuck in the middle of a Maze, which has no way out of it."

"You don't know that." I quickly interrupt. "We just need to finish mapping."

"We've mapped almost everything y/n! And we still haven't found a bloody thing!" he shouts, pulling his arm away from me. "We've also tried a ladder up to the top, climbing the vines, sitting in the box, and we even tried sending someone down after the box went down! Whatever's bloody down there cut that poor boy in half!"

I flinch as he shouts everything at me.   
I realize that he's right, we haven't found anything new for at least two months. And we did lose another boy trying to find a way out.

I look down at my hands as tears threaten to spill from my eyes. I feel hopeless, like we're never getting out of here.

I hear Newt sigh before he grabs both of my hands with his. "Y/n, I'm sorry. I've just been tired and confused. I shouldn't have shouted at you."

I look up into his chocolate brown eyes and smile weakly. He uses his thumb to gently wipe my eyes, smiling back.

"Lets head back so we can help set up for the bonfire tonight." he says, beginning to climb back down the tree.

Nodding, I follow him down the tree and back to the center of the Glade.

•••

Newt, Minho, Alby, and I are all sitting by the fire, laughing as we watch Gally beat the Greenie or any other Glader who challenges him in his fighting circle.

Minho nudges me. "You should challenge him. Everyone else has fought him at least once."

I laugh, taking a sip of Gally's drink. "Nah. It's much more fun to watch."

"Aw, whats the matter? Is y/n scared?" he teases.

"Pff, Scared of what?"

"Your scared that you'll go down quicker than I did." he says, crossing his arms.

"Oh yeah? I bet that I could last longer than you have in Gally's little fight circle." I challenged, handing my drink to Newt as I get up and march towards Gally's circle.

"Your on y/n." Minho says, following behind me.

I get to the circle just as Gally pushes Winston out of it, beating him.

"Gally!" I say, stepping into the circle.

He turns around, surprised to see me of all people wanting to challenge him.

Gally smirks, getting into a fighting stance as I do the same, bending my knees and lifting up my fists.

"You ready y/n?" he asks.

Smirking, I nod. I take a deep breath as everyone around the circle begins to cheer.   
Suddenly, Gally rushes at me, attempting to shove me out of the circle, however, I spun out of the way before he could touch me.

He stops in his tracks and spins around, and while he's not expecting it, I rush at him, wrapping my arms around his waist. 

As soon as he realizes what I'm doing, he grabs my arms and spins away from me, causing me to fall down into the sand.   
While he celebrates, I look down and sweep his legs, causing him to fall to the sand too. 

Everyone in the crowd starts laughing and cheering, and Gally looks surprised that I was even able to get him down. 

However he gets up and as soon as I get up he shoves me out of the circle, and into the outer ring of boys.

Gally walks up to me and pats my shoulder. "You might've not beat me but at least you lasted longer than Minho did." he says, laughing. "Good job."

He pats my back before walking back into the ring to fight with someone else.

I glance around and see Minho with his arms crossed, pouting like a little kid who didn't get what he wanted. And as I look around for Newt, I notice he's not here. So while everyone continues to drink and laugh, I sneak off to find Newt. 

•••

I end up finding him sitting up at the top of the tall lookout tower. 

Once I reach the top, I open the hatch door in the floor and climb up, shutting it before sitting down next to Newt, our legs dangling over the ledge.

"Why'd you leave?" I ask, staring down at the celebration below us.

"I just wanted to think." he replies simply.

"About?"

He sighs. "Nothing."

Nodding, I decide to not push for an answer, letting him have his space.

"How'd Gally manage to build this tower so bloody tall?" he mumbles, putting his hands on the wooden floor, looking over the edge.

I shrug, doing the same and seeing everyone beginning to go the bed, the bonfire a small fire that we can leave out without the whole Glade burning down.

"You should head to bed." he suggests.

"Why? I'm not even that tired." I say as I yawn.

He chuckles, shaking his head. "I know your lying. Don't worry I'll be down there soon."

I smile as I get up, turning around to head back down, but before I can, Newt grabs ahold of my hand, stopping me in my tracks.

"Y/n?" he says.

"Hm?"

"Thank you."

I look at him, confused by what he means. "Why? What did I do?"

"You've just been there for me. And I wanted to make sure you know I'm thankful for that and for you and the others."

I smile, kneeling down and pulling him into a tight hug. He hesitates for a moment before returning the embrace.

"Your welcome Newt." I whisper before pulling away and going back down to sleep. After a couple minutes I finally hear Newt come back and lie down.

•••

I slowly open my eyes as I wake up and stretch my arms and legs. 

Groaning, I sit up and put my head in my hands, feeling the regular headache I get after a night of drinking Gally's 'secret' drink. But it's no secret, we can all figure out that the drink is alcohol, based on how the ones who drink more of it can't remember what happened last night, and Alby sadly doesn't give us the day after the bonfire off, so everyone has to get back to work today.

I swing my feet over the side of the hammock and slip my shoes on, not needing to change, and walk to Minho's hammock.

I stand beside his hammock and stare down at a sleeping Minho, his arms thrown out and one of his legs hanging over the side of his hammock.

I stop staring and poke him in the face, trying to wake him up. 

He scrunches up his face and swats my hand away before finally opening his eyes. He stares up at me with an annoyed expression as I stare down at him with an unamused expression, slightly lifting one eyebrow.

"Are you gonna get up?" I ask.

"I would if you weren't in my way." he says, putting his foot on my stomach and pushing me back.

I groan before rolling my eyes as I shove his foot off my stomach and step backwards.

"I'm going to go get our backpacks packed, and you better be up and ready before I get back." I tell him as I begin to walk away. "Oh and don't forget to wake Newt up." I say over my shoulder.

I make my way through the dimly lit forest, constantly swatting my hand in front of me to get the bugs out of my face. 

Even with the bugs, I always enjoy walking through the deadheads to the map room in the early morning. It's nice to have these couple minutes of peace and quiet away from all the boys. I love them and all, but I need my own space and time to myself every once in awhile.

Once I reach the map room I begin to pack three bags, for me, Newt, and Minho since we'll be running together today. The bags are small since all we need are our knifes, food, and some water. 

As I'm about to walk out the door, I turn and look at the model of the Maze we've built to know where we've mapped already. Frowning, I think back to what Newt had said about being here for a year and not finding anything yet. Maybe he's right. Maybe we'll never get out of here and get back to our families. Do I even have a family or anyone to go back to after I get out?

I quickly shake my head, staying positive, and pushing those thoughts away. I grip the three bags tighter and make my way to the kitchen to get us waters and sandwiches.

After getting the food, I make my way to the North doors and notice only one figure standing there, and as I get closer I realize it's Minho standing there by himself.

"I thought I told you to wake Newt up." I tell him, throwing his pack at him.

"He wasn't in his hammock or anywhere else. I figured he got a head start on our run today." Minho says, adjusting the straps on his pack.

I frown, putting my pack on too. "But Newt's pack was in the Map room. He never forgets it."

"There's always a first time for everything." he shrugs. "But we should get going if we want to catch up to that shank."

"Okay. But let's try and find him as quickly as we can. I have a bad feeling about this." I mutter as I run into the Maze with Minho following right behind me.

•••

After running for about five minutes, we slow down as we begin to hear murmurs. 

"What is that?" I ask, looking around for the mysterious noise.

"It sounds like... Someone talking?" Minho frowns. "But I thought it was just us running today?"

Looking down, I furrow my brows before snapping my fingers and looking back up to Minho. "It must be Newt. He's probably talking to himself."

He nods as we start walking towards the voice.

Suddenly, Minho stops.

"We don't have time for this, we need to hurry up and get to Newt." I tell him, crossing my arms.

"Just listen." he says, holding up his pointer finger.  
I stop and listen closely and notice that the quiet murmurs have turned into sobs.

Minho suddenly starts jogging towards the sobs, I follow behind and as we get closer, the sobs get louder.

Minho turns a corner and freezes as he looks up with wide eyes. My heart begins to pound after seeing his reaction, and as I turn the corner and see what he does, my heart drops.

Newt's hanging on to the vines at the top of a massive cliff. His eyes are closed and I can see the tears streaming down his cheeks. He takes a few deep breaths and I notice his grip start to loosen on the ivy he's holding. Snapping out of my trance I run closer to the cliff. 

"NEWT!" I shout.

His eyes shoot open as he stares down at the two of us, shocked.

"What are you doing?!" Minho questions beside me.

He closes his eyes again. "I'm so sorry guys." he says with a trembling voice. "But please. I'm begging you to leave."

I stand there in shock with my mouth hanging open. "Do you really think we're just going to leave you like this?" I ask, my voice getting quieter. "Because if you think that, your in for a surprise."

"Y/n, Minho, please leave." he says, his eyes still closed tight and his teeth gritted.

"We're not leaving you Newt!" Minho shouts as he grasps my arm tightly. "Just please come down, and we promise we'll help you with this! We'll never tell anyone and we can just go back to the Glade; tell Alby your not feeling well!"

Newt opens his eyes and he stares right at us. "I can't do it. I'm sorry." he says before letting go of the ivy.

My eyes widen and my heart drops as I watch Newt fall towards the ground. 

I let out a blood-curdling scream as he falls. Suddenly, his ankle gets caught on the ivy and a horrible snap fills the corridor. The ivy slows him down and I watch in horror as he finally hits the ground with a thud. 

A second after he hits the ground, I shut my eyes, not wanting to see Newt's broken, dead body.

Sometime during Newt's fall, Minho grabbed onto me tightly, and now I'm standing there wrapped in Minho's trembling arms with my eyes shut tight, tears rolling down both of our cheeks.

Suddenly we hear a groan. My eyes shoot open and immediately go to the blonde boy lying on the ground, tangled up in the ivy.

Minho and I rush to Newt as he begins to sob again. 

I stare at Newt's broken and bloodied body with wide eyes as Minho begins to untangle his friend. Newt constantly cries out in pain as Minho moves the vines off of him.

I sit on my knees in front of Newt, my eyes still wide in shock, before Minho snaps me out of my trance.  
"Y/n, we need to get him back to the Glade." he says with urgency in his voice. "I need you to help me put him on my back, and then I need you to run ahead and get everything ready for when we get there."

I look at him and nod before I look down at Newt as he sobs.

Minho and I start to lift Newt off the ground but freeze as Newt lets out a blood-curdling scream.

"Keep going y/n. We need to get him on my back." Minho commands.

I shakily take a breath before continuing to move Newt as he pleads for us to stop.

I get Newt onto Minho's back before Minho orders me to go. 

I stand still, staring at the blonde boy as he cries out in pain. I can't bare see him this broken and hurting.  
"You'll be okay." I croak, squeezing Newt's hand before running back to the Glade with tears in my eyes.

As I reach the Glade I step onto the grass and frantically look around for Alby, calling out his name as I rush to the homestead.

Just outside the building, I find Alby walking out to me as I continue to call for him, tears streaming down my cheeks but none of the other boys have noticed.

"What's wrong y/n?" he worriedly asks.

"I-It's Newt." I cry. "He's hurt bad."

Alby furrows his brows, looking behind me then towards the Maze doors. "Where is he?"

"Minho's carrying him. I ran ahead to get everything ready. Just please hurry." 

Alby nods before pulling me with him towards the med-jack hut. "I'll make sure Clint and Jeff get the Med-jack hut ready. You go find Fry and tell him to get some water for Newt, then get Gally to help get him to Clint and Jeff. And make sure to not tell anyone else, we don't need them freaking out." 

I nod, wiping my nose before sprinting off.

After getting the two boys, we quickly make our way back to the doors where Alby is already standing. We all anxiously wait for Minho and Newt.

A few moment later, I see Minho turning around the corner with Newt still on his back. 

I run towards them and grab ahold of Newt's hand as he squeezes his eyes shut, sobbing from the pain.

When we reach the three others, they gasp, seeing their old friend in so much pain.

Minho sets Newt on the ground, the broken boy sobbing harder with every movement. Minho catches his breath before he orders Gally to lift Newt up by his arms, and me to lift him by his back, while Minho, as carefully as he can, lifts Newt by his thighs, making sure not to grab his legs.

We all carry Newt across the Glade, making sure nobody else can see what's going on. We rush into the Med-jack hut where Clint and Jeff are waiting.

We manage to get Newt onto the bed, even with the blonde constantly cursing and screaming for us to stop.

Everyone stares down at the boy lying on the bed with his eyes squeezed shut and sweat making his hair stick to his forehead. While tears stream down not only his face, but all of ours too.

We attempt to catch our breath, before Clint wipes his eyes and clears his throat. "Jeff and I will help him as best as we can. But I suggest that you guys wait outside because this isn't going to be pretty."

We all nod and begin to leave the hut.   
Just as I'm about to walk out, I turn around and look at Newt as more tears roll down his cheeks before the door shuts in front of me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> enjoy, and make sure to leave kudos :)) and stay safe !!! love ya <3


	7. Chapter Seven: I’m Sorry

Minho, Alby, Fry, Gally, and I have been sitting on the wet grass in front of the Med-jacks hut for an hour now. 

I've been staring blankly in front of me, my elbows resting on my thighs, and my hands covering my ears, trying to block out the horrifying sounds of Newts screams as the Med-jacks tend his injuries.

After about an hour, Newt's screams stopped, making the Glade deathly quiet. 

I slowly uncover my ears, wiping the silent tears off my cheeks as I look at Minho. He picks his head up out of his hands and looks back at me.   
As I look into his eyes I notice the tears also rolling down his cheeks, before he quickly wipes them away, standing up and folding his arms across his chest as he paces in front of us.

The rest of us suddenly stand as the door behind us opens to reveal Clint. The sleeves of his white shirt are rolled up. His hands have a bit of blood on them and his shirt also has some blood on it from when he wiped his hands off.

The five of us anxiously stare at Clint, waiting to hear any news about Newt. 

He quietly shuts the door before sighing. "He'll be fine." he assures us.

All of us let out a sigh of relief before Alby asks the next question on our minds. "What happened to him?"

"It's not good. He has deep gashes on his head, cuts all over his body, which were easy to tend to, all I had to do was clean up the cuts and stitch the gashes in his head. However, I noticed his right leg was bruised and swelling. So, from what I was able to feel beneath his skin, his fibula right here," he says, leaning down and touching the upper part of his calf, "took a clean snap. And his tibia," he continues, moving his hand forward and touching his shin, "broke in the same spot as the fibula, but it also broke towards the bottom part of the bone."

"So he's got broken bones." I say, furrowing my brows. "And how are you planning on that healing correctly?"

"Well basically, his bones were pulled out of alignment, so, to fix that, I had to set the bone back into place, which was worst part. Then I used some extra pieces of wood and wrapped them on both sides of his leg to hold the bone in place." he explains.

"How long will that take to heal properly? When will he run again?" I worriedly ask.

"Y/n..." he sighs. "His injuries will take almost two months to heal, and even then it won't heal properly. He'll most likely have a limp for the rest of his life, which means-"

"He can't be a Runner anymore." Alby finishes for Clint.

I look at Alby, my hand immediately flying up to cover my mouth. I can, once again, feel the tears beginning to roll down my cheeks as Clint nods his head softly, confirming what Alby said.

I stand there motionless. Feeling so many emotions flowing through my body. Sadness, shock, and confusion as to why Newt would want to do anything like this to himself, even if it didn't work out how he wanted.

Minho quietly clears his throat, "We should go inside and see him." he says as he walks to the door.

"I'm gonna stay out here and talk with Clint, you guys can go for now." Alby says. 

We all nod before walking into the Med-jack hut.

We quietly walk into the dimly lit room and find Newt lying unconscious on one of the beds. His right leg is wrapped with bandages to keep the sticks along his leg in place. He also has a bandage wrapped around his head, blood already seeping through them.

Minho looks at his friend before sitting on a chair to Newts left, I do the same and sit on Newts right, while Fry and Gally silently stand behind us.

I sit down and stare at him before looking down at his hand, gently grasping it in my left hand. I use my right hand to sweep blonde pieces of hair away from Newts eyes, noticing the tear stains on his cheeks.

Newt suddenly begins to groan in pain, moving around slightly. Minho and I both sit up straight.   
I stare at his eyes as they slowly open, so glad I still get to see those chocolate brown eyes. 

He looks at Minho and me then the others before suddenly sobbing. "I'm so bloody stupid."

I immediately lean over and lightly cup his cheek with my left hand, rubbing his arm with my right. "No, Newt. Your not stupid-"

"Yes I am! I tried to bloody kill myself y/n!" 

"I know." I mumble, taking my hand off of his cheek and firmly grasping his hand.

There's a couple minutes of silence before Minho speaks up, asking the question that's been on my mind. "Why did you do it?"

Newt stays silent for a moment.  
"Because I'm tired of being here. I've been stuck in this place for three hundred sixty six bloody days. And there's no way out. If I'm just going to die in here I'd rather just get it over with now."

I stare at Newt, thinking about what he had just said. Maybe he's right. Maybe there's no way out of this place, and we're all just going to be stuck in here for the rest of our lives. Why should we put ourselves through all of this just to die in the end? It's not like we can remember anyone waiting for us outside of this Maze.

"-right y/n?" Minho asks, ripping me away from my thoughts. 

I stare at him blankly, unsure of what to say because I hadn't heard anything he was just talking about. 

He shakes his head before repeating the question, "We all care about you Newt."

I immediately begin to shake my head up and down, nodding in agreement. "We'd have no idea what to do without you here." 

"Really?" the blonde asks unsure, tears falling down his cheeks, from pain or emotion, I'm not sure.

"Really." I respond, with a soft smile.

"And you almost left me alone with this shank." Minho adds after a couple seconds of silence, pushing my arm lightly while grinning.

I roll my eyes as I let go of Newt's hand. "Haha." I say sarcastically before looking back a the blonde. "Point is Newt, we don't want you to feel like there's nothing to live for, because there's so much to enjoy, even if it's confined to doing stuff here in the Glade. Just please trust me that we'll make it out of here alive. But in the meantime, let's just have some fun." I end, smiling brightly even if i'm pushing down my real feelings. The hopeless ones that think there's no way out except for death. I can't show those feelings to anyone at anytime, especially not right now. 

•••

{One year later}

I look ahead of me, down the long Maze corridors, the towering stone walls flying past me as I run.

I'm alone, listening to the Maze changing as the wind whips my hair around. I have one place set in my mind, and as I get closer, my heart begins to beat faster. 

I slow down once I reach the final turn, my heart feels like it's about to burst out of my chest. And as I turn, I tilt my head up to look at the massive cliff that Newt jumped off about a year ago.

Newt was out of bed about six weeks after his incident. He has a permanent limp, so he's now stuck to working in the gardens as a Track-hoe. 

Everyone in the Glade, except Minho, Alby, Gally, Fry, the med-jacks, and me, think that he was simply trying to climb up the vines to find a way out, before he lost his grip and fell. 

Minho and I told Alby and the others what had happened after we finished talking with Newt. 

Now nobody talks about the blonde boys accident, wanting to completely forget the whole thing. But Minho and I will never forget. We'll never forget the horrifying sound of Newt's body hitting the ground after he jumped. And we'll never forget the sounds of his screams and cries.

I remember telling Newt that everything will be okay, that there's something to live for, and that we'll find a way out.

Yet here I am, giving up all hope I had of finding a way out of this dreadful place. 

I reach my right hand out and tightly grasp the thick vine in front of me, doing the same with my left before I begin to climb up the stone wall. 

As I get higher up, I think about what Newt had said when we asked him why he did it, 'If I'm going to die in here I'd rather get it over with now.' 

Back then I thought we'd find a way out, but now, a year later, we still haven't found anything. Newt was right. There is no point in living. Nobody can remember anything outside the Maze, so what's the point if I can't even remember the life I had before? I'm never going to get that life back. It was stolen from me, from everyone else in this Maze. And the crazy thing is, we don't even know who stole it.

I reach the top of this cliff, lying down on my back to catch my breath. Not that I'll be needing it anyways. 

I stare up at the orange sky, the sun just beginning to peak over the Maze's walls. I watch it fully rise over the walls, wanting to enjoy one of the things I love about the Maze one last time.   
A couple months ago I started to wake up before Minho and the other Runners just so I could watch the sunrise. Most times, Newt would wake up with me and we'd watch it together, enjoying the bright colors and the quiet Glade. And most times, Minho would wake up and completely ruin the quiet, not that he meant to, Minho just couldn't sit and be silent for a little while.

I sit up and wipe my face with my hand, realizing I was crying silently. 

Pushing those thoughts away, I stand up and slowly make my way towards the edge of the cliff.

My feet make it to the edge, the tips of my feet are sticking over the side as I stare down. Okay y/n. All you have to do is jump away from the wall and make sure to not get caught in the ivy. That was Newts mistake.

It sounded easier to do in my head, but now that I'm actually up here I don't know if I can do it. 

I close my eyes, taking a deep breath and thinking back to why I want to do this in the first place.  
There's no way out.  
It's hopeless, you can't even remember anything outside the Maze.  
Your just going to die in this hellhole anyways, might as well get it over with.  
What's the point?  
Whoever put you in here is obviously torturing you, do you really think they'd let you out?

I open my eyes and give myself one last pep-talk. Don't mess up like Newt did. Just make sure you jump out far enough, then your free.

I nod my head, crouching down as I prepare to jump. 

However, I familiar voice stops me in my place.   
"Y/n!" Minho shouts from down below me. "Don't do it y/n!" 

I glare down at him, angry that he stopped me before I could jump. "Why?! It's all too damn stressful!" I shout back, beginning to break down in tears.

"Y/n please come down!"

"No!"

"What would Newt think about this?! You know how much he regretted jumping!" Minho shouts, his voice cracking as he begins to cry too. "I know you might think it's an easy way out now, but it's not! Everyone here cares so much about you!"

I frown, wiping the tears off my face as I listen to Minho continue on, not shouting anymore.  
"Your such an important part of this Glade. You make everyone smile when they thought they wouldn't, and you always know how to have fun during our runs when I was feeling down. You hid your emotions so well, and I'm so sorry I wasn't able to see that deep down you were actually scared, hopeless, and sad. I'm sorry everyone just assumed nothing was wrong with you just because you always have a smile on your face. Now please. I'm begging you to come back down."

I cover my mouth as I let out a sob, my eyes blurry from the tears. I back away from the edge of the cliff before slumping down on the ground.

After a couple moments, I rub my eyes and make my way down the cliff. Being very careful to not lose my grip and fall all the way to the bottom.

As my feet safely touch the bottom I'm immediately wrapped in a tight hug.

"Please, never do that again y/n." Minho mumbles into my hair, his body trembling.

I nod before repeatedly mumbling how sorry I am into the crook of his neck, letting the tears fall down my face this time.

After a couple minutes, Minho and I silently jog back to the Glade before anyone else got up. We snuck back into our hammocks and lied down. 

"Can we not tell anyone about what happened today?" I whispered to Minho.

"You don't even want to talk about it with Newt?"

"No. I'll tell him about it once we're out of here."

It's silent for a moment before Minho agrees to not talk about it with anyone.

I thank him before falling asleep, only to be woken up by Newt thirty minutes later. 

Minho and I packed up our packs and ran into the Maze like usual, acting like I hadn't just tried to kill myself.

Right as we turn around the first corner, Minho grabs my wrist, making me stop.

"Let's just take a break for today." he said, letting go of my wrist, sitting down and closing his eyes.

I smiled to myself before sitting down beside Minho, so thankful that he was there to stop me from jumping. 

I closed my eyes and fall asleep until it's time to go back to the Glade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Make sure to wash your hands and be safe ! This will all be over soon ! make sure to leave kudos to show support :)) thank you <3


	8. Chapter Eight: The New Greenie

{One year later}

Stretching, I slowly open my eyes and sit up in my hammock. I rub my eyes and look around at all the boys sleeping peacefully in their hammocks. 

Being a Runner has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is how quiet it is while I get ready for my run with Minho. But the disadvantage is that the Runners have to wake up earlier than the others, and we have to run through a deadly maze all day, with the risk of getting trapped for the night; and nobody ever survives a night in the Maze.

However, I'm not running today. Since I'm the only girl in the Glade, Alby has decided that I get the honor of welcoming the new, scared little Greenies who always try to run away.  
They think it's a brilliant idea to try and run through the Maze doors, thankfully I always catch them before they do. The jokes on them though because there's no way out. 

Anyways, I'm basically the tour guide of the Glade. Before every tour Alby always reminds me to not tell them what's beyond the doors, which is a completely idiotic move in my opinion. I don't see the point in hiding things from them if they're going to be stuck here with us. But, I just do what Alby asks me to and try not to argue too much with him.

I swing my legs over the side of my hammock and sit there for a minute before getting up and slipping my boots on. After tying the laces I grab a light blue  
t-shirt and olive color shorts, before heading to change.

Once I get back I notice Minho and Newt talking with each other. "Minho? What are you still doing here?" I ask.

Minho sighs, crossing his arms behind his head. "Lying down. Why are you even up now, I mean you do have a long day of being a tour guide." he smirks.

I shrug. "I'm already used to waking up at this time. And shouldn't you be getting ready to run right now?"

"Touché." he says getting up and walking off.

Sighing, I walk back to my hammock and sit down, closing my eyes to rest before waking up to actually start my day.

•••

After lying down in my hammock for about an hour or so, just watching to boys wake up one by one to get food, I decide it's finally time to get off my butt and go eat with the others.

I smile and wave to the other boys as I make my way to the food line, stopping a couple times to talk with some of them before finally getting to the beautiful, yet disgusting, food.

I stare ahead of me as the others get their food, anxiously waiting for my turn in line. As I step up to the front of the line, Fry smirks at me while I impatiently tap on the wooden table.

"So are you gonna give me my food or what?" I question as I slowly attempt to reach for my plate.

"You really like my cooking huh? Which is funny because almost everyone else doesn't."

"Yes, it does indeed taste like tree bark, but it's at least better than what Newt used to cook so don't worry, your the best cook out of all of us. And hey, food is food my friend." I tell him, snatching my plate and walking towards the table the others are already sitting at.

"Hey losers." I smile, sitting down next to Newt as he playfully rolls his eyes.

"Stop calling us that y/n." Chuck pouts, crossing his chubby little arms and glaring at me from across the table.

"Awe c’mon buddy I'm just messin' with ya." I laugh, reaching over to ruffle his curly hair before he swats my hand away.

"Your beginning to bloody act like Minho." Newt says, picking at his food.

"Just thought you guys missed our dear Minho so much while he's out running the Maze, so I thought I'd play his part."

"Well it's annoying enough when it's just him, we don't need you too." Gally speaks up.

"Fine." I sigh, beginning to dig into the food Fry made.

"Bleh. I don't understand how you eat so much of this stuff y/n. None of this looks edible." Gally continues, mixing his food around his plate.

"Well it's better than what Newt used to cook for us." I smirk, elbowing the blonde. "No offense."

He looks down at me with a blank expression before pushing me away.

All throughout breakfast I continue to mess with the boys and act like Minho; annoying, stupid, and sassy. Until it was time for everyone to start working. Gally went off to the builders hut, Chuck went to the kitchens to clean up, and Newt and I went to the gardens.

I lie against the fence post that helps support the plants, watching Newt as he works tirelessly. I start to get bored, like I always do when I'm stuck in the Glade for a full day, and begin to sigh obnoxiously.

Newt let's out a long, exhausted sigh before turning to look down at me. "How about you help me out, yeah?" he suggests, holding out his small gardening shears for me to use.

I groan, getting up and snatching the shears out of his hand. "I'm just gonna do it wrong."

"Well with that attitude you are."

I glare at him, putting an obviously fake smile on my face before getting to work. I grab a vine and as I'm about to cut it Newt grabs my wrist, stopping me.

"What am I already doing wrong?" I ask, rolling my eyes.

He chuckles. "I just tied that vine up. If you cut it, all these vines," he gestures to the area around the vine I was just about to cut. "Are going to fall apart."

I frown, "So what am I supposed to cut?"

"Your not cutting anything."

"So why the hell do I have these?" I ask, waving the shears around.

"First, don't use that language, we came up with clean words for a reason." he starts, grasping my hand and guiding my hand to a vine not tied to another one. "And second, your just going to trim the vines that are like these."

I raise my brow. "And what are you gonna be doing?"

"Observing." he smirks, sitting down.

"Um, actually-" I'm about to tell him that I'm not going to be doing his job before a loud buzzing cuts me off.

Both Newt and I look towards the source of the noise, and notice Gally, Alby, and the other Gladers already running towards the box.

"The Greenies here." Newt mumbles as he gets up and limps quickly towards the box as I follow behind him silently.

As I run to catch up to him, I notice his limp and feel a sudden pang inside my chest, slowing down to jog beside him.  
It's my fault he's stuck with a limp for the rest of his life. I could've helped him through his pain before his jump. But I didn't. I was stupid enough to think that telling him it'll be alright was enough. He was depressed and I wasn't a good enough friend to notice how bad it actually was.

I look ahead and notice Newt is already almost at the box, so I push the thought out of my head, and run towards the box.

I push my way through the crowd of boys to get to the center of everything, standing next to Newt just as Gally pulls open the box and jumps in. Completely taking the job that I had stayed in the Glade to do.

All the Gladers peer down, trying to get a glimpse of the new Greenie. 

He backs up against the supply box and his face gets revealed by the sunlight. The new boy looks up past Gally at all of us before looking back at the boy in front of him. 

"Day one, Greenie. Rise and shine." Gally says before grabbing the poor boy and harshly dragging him out of the box, dropping him on the ground.

As I take a closer look at the Greenie I notice he has short, dark brown hair, and brown eyes. His blue shirt, now filthy and drenched in sweat. He looks to be about the same age as the rest of us; 17 or 18.

All the boys gather around the new kid at our feet. They laugh and make jokes about what job he'll get; only suggesting the ones that nobody wants.

He looks around before quickly getting up and pushing his way past everyone and sprinting away from us. 

I internally groan as all the boys laugh at the brown haired boy. Not another running kid, I really don't want to chase him down all day.

"We got a Runner!" Zart shouts as the boy dashes across the Glade.  
That is until he falls face first in the grass.

Newt nudges me and smirks, motioning his head towards the Greenie. "I think your going to have a bloody good time with this one."

I roll my eyes and he laughs as the new boy gets up and looks around the Glade, while the others clap and cheer for him.

"Take it all in!" someone shouts, laughing.

As everyone splits up to get back to what they were doing before, Alby comes up to me.  
"I'll have you do the tour in about an hour so the Greenie can calm down. Just relax for now but make sure you meet me by the Slammers in an hour."

"Fine by me." I shrug, turning and following after Newt.

•••

I get to the Slammers just before Alby does. He crouches down and peers down into the cell as I stay standing with my arms crossed behind him.

"Hey there Green Bean. Not gonna run again. Okay?" Alby says before opening the cell door. "My names Alby. And this is y/n." he points back at me with his thumb. "Now can you tell us anything about yourself? Who you are? Where you came from? Anything?"

The Greenie looks down and starts shaking his head, he starts breathing fast as if he's about to start crying, "No." he mutters.

"Do you know your name?"

He continues to shake his head before looking up at the two of us. "I can't remember anything. Why can't I remember anything?" he quickly asks.

"It's okay." Alby says calmly. But the boys breathing just becomes more rapid.

I crouch down as the boy continues to panic. "Hey, relax. Just relax. Not remembering is normal. It happened to all of us." I pause letting the boy slow down his breathing. "And your name will come back to you in a day or two. It's the one thing they let us keep."

Once his breathing returns to normal he looks up at the two of us. "Where am I?"

I glance at Alby as he reaches his hand down into the pit. "Let us show you."

The Greenie hesitated before finally grasping Alby's hand. After hoisting him up, we begin to walk through the Glade.

I follow along quietly. Secretly glad that Alby is deciding to give the tour to the new boy.

I follow as Alby explains everything; where we eat, we sleep, what we do here, and where everything is. Alby explains what the box is and what it does for us every month. 

"Who sent us up here? Who put us here?" the Greenie asks as we stop in the middle of the Glade.

"We don't know." I answer simply. 

"Hey, are you all right, y/n, Alby?" a thick british accent asks from behind me.

Alby chuckles and I grin as Newt stands next to me and puts his arm on my shoulder, grinning widely.

"Green Bean, meet Newt." Alby introduces as the blonde and brown haired boys shake hands. "When I'm not around, he's in charge."

"Well it's a good thing your always around then. It'd be a disaster if I were to be in charge, then this one would be second in command," he smiles, pointing at me. "And us two in charge won't be too good."

Newt takes his arm off of my shoulder to face the Greenie completely. "Listen, that was some dash you made earlier. For a second, I thought you had the chops to be a Runner..." he smirks. "Till you face-planted."

The three of us laugh as the Greenie stands there with a confused expression. "Wait, a runner?"

We stop and look at each other before Alby looks at both me and Newt. "You two. Do me a favor. Go find Chuck. Y/n, don't worry I'll handle the tour this time."

"Alright." Newt and I both respond before walking off to find Chuck.

We end up finding him still cleaning off the tables and dishes in the kitchen. He's too young to do any of the other jobs around the Glade so we had to make him a Slopper, which cleans up around the Glade. It's the worst job and nobody wants it, but it's the easiest.

"How's work treating you buddy?" I ask sitting down at one of the tables he just cleaned, Newt standing behind me. I lean my head against my hand and wait for Chucks sarcastic remark.

"Oh it's so fun y/n! I just love doing the cleaning while you get to do nothing but show a Greenie around today!" He says with fake enthusiasm; and there's the sarcasm.

"Actually, that's why I came to talk to you." I smirk. "Alby said that he needs you to help with the Greenie while I just sit today out."

Chuck stands there in disbelief, and I hear Newt let out a small chuckle behind me. I know Chuck hates cleaning up after us, and is always upset that he doesn't get to be one of the first people the newbie meets, he's very outgoing and wants everyone to be his friend, so I knew he'd be happy with the news.

"Wait really?! I get to give the Greenie the tour?" he asks, throwing his cleaning rag in the sink. 

"Well I think Alby's doing the tour right now, but, I think you'll get to help him set up his hammock." I smile. "But you have to remember not to tell him about the Maze. You got that?"

He eagerly nods, waiting for me to tell him where they are. I laugh to myself and point towards the top of the tall tower in the middle of the Glade and he runs off to get his stuff before rushing to the tower as fast as he can, which sadly isn't that fast.

"I don't get why the kid wants to help out with the Greenies so much." Newt sighs. 

I turn around and face him, tilting my head slightly. "What's wrong with the new Greenies?"

"They just ask so many questions." he groans. "And they're always the same things; 'Where am I?', 'Who am I?', 'Who put us here?', and then once we tell them they just ask if we've tried to get out. We've obviously tried to get out of this bloody place."

"Yeah, I get it, but that doesn't matter because we're not in charge of that today." I smile, lying down on the one of the table benches.

"You don't have to deal with the continuous questions, but I do. He has to try out being a track-hoe."

"Oh that's right huh?" I laugh. "Don't worry, I'll help out while the Greenies working. I'll even answer questions."

He smiles softly, rubbing his neck. "Thanks." 

"Anytime. Now I think I should go help Chuck out before he spills the beans that we’re in the middle of a giant deadly Maze to the Greenie. And I need to make sure he ties the hammock right." I sigh, slowly rolling off the bench and waving goodbye to Newt.

As I make my way towards the tower I stop and change my route after seeing Chuck and the Greenie walking towards the group of hammocks. 

Deciding to scare Chuck, I slowly sneak up behind him before grabbing his shoulders and whispering 'boo' in his ear. He jumps and shrieks, dropping all the stuff he was carrying. The Greening stares at the two of us as I just laugh, scooping up the stuff Chuck was carrying and walking ahead of them.

"Y/n!" I hear Chuck yell behind me as he runs to catch up. "That's not nice at all! I was talking with the Greenie!"

I raise my eyebrows and peer over my shoulder. "You should really pay attention, because it looks like the Greenies starting to wander." I smirk.  
Chuck stops and frantically runs back to the Greenie and brings him to where I am as I sit down in some random Glader's hammock.

Chuck bends over with his hands on his knees and catches his breath. He takes one final deep breath before continuing the conversation with the Greenie where he had left off, "So, as I was saying, each month a new Greenie comes up in the box along with supplies for the Glade, which is where we live." 

I lie back in the hammock i'm sitting in and close my eyes, adding in my two cents to whatever story Chuck tells as he sets up the Greenie's hammock.

"It's basically the same story for all of us. We wake up in the box, Alby gives us the tour, then here we are." 

I smirk as I remember exactly how Chuck came up in the box. "Well, some of us did better than the others on their first day. Chuck over here klunked his pants three times before we got him out of the pit."

It's quiet for a moment as I wait for the Greenie to laugh at the embarrassing story of Chuck, but I never hear it, instead I hear Chuck groan as he finishes up what he's doing. I peek open my eyes, and instead of seeing the Greenie standing in front of us, I see his back as he walks away from us.

"How come all this shank wants to do is wander off?" I groan as I quickly get up and jog after the Greenie, Chuck running behind me after noticing we both left.

We finally catch up to the Greenie and Chuck lightly grabs his arm as I silently walk on the other side.

"Dude, where are you going?" Chuck asks. I raise one eyebrow as we both wait for an answer, curious as to what the Greenie's doing. 

"I just wanna see." is all the he replies with.

I simply nod my head, letting the Greenie do whatever he really wants, because I would honestly be curious as to what they're not showing me too.

"You can look around all you want Greenie, no ones stopin ya." I tell him, putting my hands in my pockets as I follow beside him.

Chuck glares at me before getting the Greenie's attention. "Fine, you can look around but you can't go out there." he warns.

"Why can't I? What's through those doors?"

"I don't know. I just know what I'm told. And we're not supposed to leave."

The greenie looks down at him before looking at me, raising one of his eyebrows as he waits for an answer out of me.

"What?" I ask, acting like I don't know he clearly wants answers out of me.

"How long have you been here for?" he asks me.

I cross my arms, "Long enough to give out orders. Why do you want to know?"

"So You've been here long enough to give me some answers then, right?" he says, standing in front of me.

"I guess, yeah. But that doesn't mean I'm going to tell you anything." I say, keeping a straight face.

"Why can't I know anything?" he questions.

I can tell he's getting irritated but I don't back down. I shrug, "Alby's orders Greenie. Sorry."

Just then I notice two people run through the Maze doors; Minho and Ben. A smile grows on my face as I jog up to the two of them. "Hey guys!" I say, high-fiving them both. 

"Hey y/n. Enjoying your day off?" Minho asks, stopping for a moment to talk with me while Ben jogs off.

"Eh, it's whatever. I'm not even doing the tour today, so there was basically no point in me staying." 

"Who's doing the tour then?" he asks, crossing his arms.

I nod my head towards Chuck as he talks to the Greenie, who's staring at Minho and I, not paying attention to Chuck. "I've just been following the Greenie around to make sure no one tells him anything he's not supposed to know yet."

"Ah." Minho nods his head. "Welp, I better get going so I can help setup for the bonfire tonight."

He waves to me before turning and jogging towards Chuck and the Greenie, talking to them for a second before going through the forest to the Map room.

I stand and wait for the Greenie to walk up to me, already knowing the questions he's going to ask me now that he's seen the Runners. I don't know what I'm going to tell him yet because I'm not supposed to tell him who the Runners are and what's beyond those doors. 

"I thought no one was aloud to leave?" he asks me, furrowing his brows, irritated.

Chuck quickly cuts in and answers for me, not that I was even going to answer at all. "I told you we're not allowed to leave." he says motion to himself and the Greenie. "They're different," he says pointing to me then in Ben and Minho's direction, "They're Runners. They know more about the Maze than anyon-"

I quickly shove my hand over Chucks mouth, glaring at him so he knows he seriously messed up. 

The Greenie looks at the two of us, "Wait, what?"

"Huh?" Chuck and I both say in unison.

"He just said 'Maze'" the greenie says, frowning and pointing at Chuck.

"He did? I didn't hear it." I attempt to cover it up, which doesn't work out.

"Yeah. He did." the Greenie says before looking over towards the doors. He glances back to us before swiftly walking towards them.

Once the Greenie's far enough away from us I lightly smack Chuck on the back of the head. "Alby and I gave you one job Chuck; help the Greenie get adjusted to the Glade, and to not say anything about the shucking Maze!" I scold him. "Now you've gone and mentioned that there's a giant Maze out there."

"Oops." is all he says while giving a small smile and a shrug. 

I groan, turning away from Chuck while rubbing the bridge of my nose. I walking briskly to where the Greenie is standing, just a few feet away from the doors. However, I have to admit, I'm kinda glad Chuck mentioned the Maze to the Greenie, it makes it so the rest of us don't have to be careful while talking around the new boy.  
I hear someone running up behind me and soon enough I see Chuck walking by my side.

"Where are you going? What are you doing?" Chuck asks the boy as he slowly inches closer to the Maze's entrance.

"I'm just gonna take a look." he mumbles.

Chuck lightly tugs on the Greenie's arm. "I told you, you can't. No one's aloud to leave, especially not now." he looks down the corridor before looking back at the boy, "It's not safe."

I frown as I watch the Greenie mutter a few words to Chuck before stepping closer towards the doors. I glance to my right and see Gally swiftly walking towards us, his eyebrows more arched than ever. I cross my arms and smirk, something tells me that this is going to be good.

Just as the Greenie is about to walking through the giant doors, Gally charges at him. "Hey!" he says, harshly shoving the Greenie to the ground. My eyes widen in shock as Gally stands over the boy, who's now covered in dirt. "We gotta stop meeting like this, Greenie."

"Get off me!" the boy shouts, scrambling away from Gally.

"All right! Calm, calm, clam." Gally tells him, glancing around as other Gladers start to circle around.

"Don't touch me!" the Greenie yells, getting to his feet and into an almost fighting stance.

I decide to intervene, putting my hands up and slowly walking towards the Greenie. "Just relax Greenie."

He steps back, away from all of us. "What the hell is wrong with all of you?"

Newt steps up beside me with his hands up in front of himself too. "Just calm down, all right?"

"No okay? Why won't you tell me what's out there?"

"We're just trying to protect you." Alby says calmly, stepping up to the front of the crowd.

"You guys can't just keep me here."

"We can't let you leave Greenie." I tell him, shaking my head behind Alby.

"Why not?" he exclaims glaring at Newt, Alby, and I.

Just after he asks, the doors make a small sound at first, causing all of us the quite down and look down the corridor. The Greenie turns around and looks as a gust of wind causes us to all cover our faces.  
I always wondered why the Maze did this just before the doors closed. It was always a warning that you had seconds left to get through the doors or you'll get left out in the Maze overnight; and nobody's survived a night in the Maze.

Then, a loud grumbling sound echos throughout the Glade and we all watch as the doors slowly begin to shut for the night. We all stand in silence after they finally shut.

Gally walks up to the Greenie. "Next time, I'm gonna let you leave." he says before walking away.

I stand there with my arms crossed, watching the Greenie stare up in shock or amazement, I can't tell which. Newt taps my shoulder, motioning for me to leave and as I turn around and start walking I hear Alby tell the Greenie, "Welcome to the Glade." before following behind everyone else.

We walk back, meeting up with Minho before going to help set up the bonfire in celebration of the new Greenie.

•••

A couple boys play on the makeshift drums we made as Alby sets fire to mine and a couple of the other boy's wooden poles. 

"Alright! Let's light em up!" he shouts. 

On his command, everyone with the lit up poles throws theirs into the giant pile of wood and it lights up. I smile as light and heat immediately surround me. All the Gladers cheer after the fire goes up, I cheer with them and soon everyone starts laughing, talking, dancing, and fighting.  
Someone soon hands me a drink and everyone clinks their glasses together, taking a sip right afterward. I cringe a little as I drink the concoction Gally made, it's very strong but that's not gonna stop me from having a good time.

After a couple drinks, I start to feel a little dizzy so I decide to find a place to sit and rest my head for a minute before going back. I always end up drinking a little too much, even if I have Newt to remind me of what'll happen when I drink too much. 

As I walk towards a log away from everyone else I notice someone already sitting on the other side, facing away from the fire, towards the Maze doors. I make my way over and sit down beside the person, rubbing my eyes before looking at who I'm sitting by. It takes me a moment but I finally realize that it's the Greenie, and even though I'm telling myself not to, I decide to start up a conversation. "Hey Greenie."

"Hey." he says. "Your y/n, right? The only girl in the..." he stops and gestures around us.

I laugh. "The only girl in the Glade." he put his arm down and nods. "Yup, so it's really easy to remember who I am."

He chuckles before looking out at the dark Glade. I take it as a sign that we're done talking so I pull my knees up to my chest and rest my head on my knees, closing my eyes and listening to the other Gladers celebrating behind us.

"Are you alright?" The Greenie asks.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's nothing, I've been through way worse." I tell him, waving my hand at him without opening my eyes.

"Is it dangerous out there?" 

Before I can answer, a strong British accent interrupts, "Yup. It's dangerous everywhere in here." I pick my head up as Newt steps over the log we're leaning against and sits in between The Greenie and I. "Y/n you look like klunk."

I glare at him, smacking his arm lightly. He laughs and gives me some meat that's been pierced by a stick. "Eat this. It'll help." he tells me before turning to the Greenie. "So, how's the first day?"

I slowly peel the meat off the stick and shove it in my mouth, closing my eyes and savoring the delicious flavor. As I eat I listen to Newt and the Greenie's conversation.

"Here." Newt says picking up the glass he brought and handing it to the Greenie. "It'll put some hair on your chest."

The Greenie takes the glass and puts it to his lips. Newt and I watch as he gags then spits the drink out. We laugh as he coughs and spits on the ground.  
"Oh my God, what is that?" he asks, still coughing.

Newt takes the glass from him, still laughing. "I don't even know."

"It's Gally's recipe. He won't tell anyone what's in it." I say turning around to watch the boys behind us.

Newt nods and turns around, the Greenie doing the same. "It's a trade secret."

"Yeah, well, he's still an asshole." the Greenie says, as we turn back around.

"He saved your life today." Newt tells him. "Trust me. The Maze is a dangerous place."

A moment of silence passes.

"We're trapped here, aren't we?" the Greenie asks.

"For the moment." Newt nods. "But." he turns around again, us doing the same. "You see those guys? Right there, by the fire? Those are the Runners. Y/n's one of em’ too. And that guy in the middle there, that's Minho. He's the keeper of the Runners. Every morning, when those doors open, they run the Maze... Mapping it, memorizing it, trying to find a way out."

"It's tiring stuff Greenie." I add.

"How long have you guys been looking?" the Greenie asks, looking at Newt and I.

I look at Newt as he frowns. "Three years." he says.

"And you haven't found anything?"

I raise my brow. "It's not as easy as it seems. There's countless obstacles." I say pointing towards the Maze.

Newt clears his throat and puts his hand up to his ear. "Listen."

We all quiet down and listen to the Maze in front of us as it grumbles, making constant noises throughout the night. After all these years it's become soothing to me before I got to bed, I always stay up as late as I can and listen to the Maze instead of falling asleep, because I know I'll end up waking up from a nightmare. I always get them, not every night, but often.

We listen for a couple more seconds before Newt speaks up, "That's the Maze, changing. It changes every night." he explains.

"How's that even possible?" the Greenie asks.

Newt shrugs. "You can ask the people who put us in here, if you ever meet the bastards." he jokes before getting serious again. "Listen, the truth is, the Runners are the only ones who really know what's out there. They're the strongest, and the fastest of us all. And that's a good thing too, because if they don't make it back before those doors close, then they're stuck out there for the night. And no ones ever survived a night in the Maze." he finishes, taking a sip of his drink.

The Greenie stares at him in shock. "What happens to them out there?"

"We call them Grievers." I tell him. "Of course, no ones ever seen one and lived to tell about it. But they're out there." I nod.

We sit there for a moment, letting the Greenie take in everything we just told him before I finally stand up. "Alright, that's enough questions for one night. I'm feeling much better so how about we go back to the party again?" I smirk, grabbing Newts arm and lifting him up to his feet before doing the same with the Greenie. 

"Your supposed to be our guest of honor." Newt tells him, patting his back.

"Yeah, let us show you around." I say, walking ahead.

As we walk up towards the others I see Gally fighting with any other poor Glader that wants to challenge him. Nobody's ever beaten Gally at his own game, and I think that's really gone to his head. 

"There we have the builders." Newt says, pointing to a group of boys messing around. "They're good with their hands, but not a lot going on upstairs."  
I grin as Newt continues, "And then we got Winston, he's the Keeper of the Slicers. And our two Med-jacks, Clint and Jeff. Those two spend most of their time bandaging up the Slicers."

I take a sip of another drink I got from some random Glader, making sure that Newt doesn't see.

"What if I want to be a Runner?" the Greenie asks.

I immediately spit out my drink all over the place. "What?!" I ask, shocked. "Did you not listen to anything Newt and I just said. No one wants to be a Runner."

Newt scowls at me, wiping the drink I just spit all over off of himself. "Besides, you gotta get chosen."

"Chosen by who?" he asks before someone gets shoved into the back of him, causing him to stumble forwards. 

I look at who had run into the Greenie only to find Gally as he helps one of the boys up off the ground. He looks at me before looking at the Greenie. "What do you say, Greenie? Wanna see what your made of?"

We all just stand there, glancing back and forth between the Greenie and Gally before someone starts a chant. "Greenie! Greenie! Greenie!" Soon everyone gathers around Gally and the Greenie, joining in on the chant too.

I find a spot next to Newt and Minho, smiling and shaking my head. "The Greenies not gonna last too long." I tell them.

"I think he's got some fight in him." Newt says, taking a sip from his drink.

"Not enough to beat Gally though." Minho says, crossing his arms.

"Okay. All right." Gally calms everyone down. "The rules are simple, Greenie. I try to push you out of the circle, you try to last more than five seconds." The Gladers laugh before Gally asks the Greenie if he's ready.

As soon as the Greenie nods, Gally rushes at him and shoves him out of the circle and into a group of boys who just push him back in. As he gets pushed back in, Gally moves around him and pushes him to the ground from behind.

"C’mon Greenie." Gally taunts.

"Stop calling me Greenie." 

"What do you want to be called? Shank?" Gally teases, causing all of us to laugh. 

We watch as the Greenie charges at Gally, trying to shove him down. But Gally's too strong and simply holds him back before finally shoving him to the ground again. The Greenie quickly gets up and rushes at Gally again, but this time as Gally pushes him back, the Greenie moves out of the way and pushes Gally to the ground.

I stand there shocked before a smile grows on my face, I look around and everyone cheers for the Greenie. 

The Greenie walks up to Gally, standing over him. "Not bad for a Greenie, huh?"  
Suddenly, Gally sweeps his foot across the Greenies feet, causing the new Glader to fall to the ground, smacking his head hard. 

Nobody seems to know what to do as the Greenie just lays there on the ground. I look at Newt and Minho with a concerned expression, slowly moving towards the Greenie.  
I hear him mutter something before he says it again, louder this time. "Thomas! Hey, I remember my name! I'm Thomas!"

Suddenly Alby shouts, "Thomas!" And everyone erupts into applause. We all run up to him and pat him on the back. Frypan gives him a drink and we all chug ours down as Thomas does the same. He cringes but still swallows the drink.

Gally walks up to him and shakes his hand. "Good job... Thomas."

The celebration suddenly gets interrupted by a loud shriek coming from the Maze. We all stop talking and listen as the shriek dies out.

"What was that?" Thomas asks.

"That, my friend, was a Griever. Don't worry, your safe here with us." Gally tells him. "Nothing gets through those walls."

"Alright guys. Let's tuck it in for the night. Come on." Alby orders.

Newt, Minho, and I pat Thomas's back as we walk away, towards our hammocks.  
"Well today was an eventful day." I say, stretching and getting into my hammock, in between the two boys. "I have a feeling somethings going to happen."

"What klunk are you on about now y/n?" Minho asks, plopping down in his hammock.

"I mean, I feel like this new boy is gonna be different from the others. I have a good feeling about him, that's all."

"Let's hope your right. I'm ready to get out of this shucking place." Minho sighs.

"Me too." Newt says, already in bed.

"Me three." I agree.

"Alright, enough talking I need my beauty sleep. You two shanks should really try to get some too, you could use it." Minho yawns, turning over in his hammock.

I roll my eyes, sticking my tongue out behind his back. "Goodnight shanks." I say, closing my eyes.

"Goodnight." they both say before we all fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we’re getting caught up to the chapters the end of the chapters I have on Wattpad (Eleven, Twelve is currently being written) so once I get caught up the updates will be a little slower (sorry >_<) if you want to read what I already have, my wattpad is @Newtslove_  
> stay safe out there guys ! make sure to leave kudos, thank you :)


	9. Chapter Nine: Banished

_I slowly open my eyes, rubbing the remainders of sleep from them. But instead of waking up to the soft light all throughout the Glade, I wake up in a dark forest, the only light is from the moon as it shines down and casts shadows._

_I sit up on my elbows and glance around, I notice that I'm lying in a clearing of trees. The grass that I'm sitting on is damp, causing the bottom of my pants and my elbows the get wet._

_I quickly get up, not wanting to get wetter than I already was, and look at my surroundings. The forest is misty, only allowing me to see a couple yards in front of me, and the trees look just like shadows._

_As I stare off into the trees I see a light about fifty yards away, it's a dull glowing light, and as soon as I see it, it disappears. The only thing I can think of is that I'm in the deadheads and this is all a prank the boys are pulling to scare me._

_Shaking my head, I slowly walk in the direction I just saw the light. "Hello?" I call out, playing along with the boy's games. "Is anyone out there?"_

_There's no response._

_"I have no idea how I got into the middle of this forest. I hope nobody comes and gets me." I fake cry, grinning to myself._

_I wait a couple seconds before going on with my helpless girl act. "I'm so scared! I hope nothing happens-" I stop, staring out into the forest as the light comes back, only this time it's closer._

_I frown, walking forward towards the light to catch whoever is shining it, but the light just goes out again. I stop in my tracks._

_"Okay guys. Waking up in the middle of the forest has been fun and all, but I'd really like to go back to my hammock and sleep." I say loud enough so that whoever is out there can hear me._

_But there's no response._

_If this is Minho and Newt I swear I'll personally kill them._

_I suddenly whip around after hearing branches rustling behind me, the sound coming from the very edge of the clearing I'm in. When I turn around towards the noise I see the light again, only this time there's four lights._

_"Boys?" I whimper, really wanting the them to just jump out and laugh at how scared I was, so this could all be over._

_I back away from the lights before all of them but one suddenly go out. The one still flashing starts to blink, on then off, on then off, on then off. My eyes widen as the branches start to rustle again and a figure walks out of the bushes._

_"Hello?" I ask, backing up. "Who are you?"_

_The figure says nothing, but looks up at me. I can tell it's a boy, about the same age as the rest of us. His hair is matted and his clothes seem dirty and torn. He lifts his hands and starts clenching them into fists then unclenching them, still staring at me with black eyes._

_The figure suddenly sprints at me._

_I scream, quickly dodging him before he could tackle me to the ground. I don't even look behind me as I sprint away, into the dark forest, however I know he's right behind me because I can hear his footsteps._

_I tell myself not to look back, that that'll only slow me down, but I can't help myself. I glance over my shoulder and see the boy sprinting behind me, getting closer each second._

_How the hell is he so damn fast?_

_As I turn around I see a thick root sticking out of the forest floor, but it's too late. My foot catches onto the root and I crash to the ground._

_I'm unable to even catch my breath before the boy jumps on top of me, turning me over onto my back and pinning down my wrists._

_I scream and try to get out of the boys grip, kicking my legs and thrashing out under him, but he's too strong. I look up at him and see that his eyes are completely black, with no sign of life. His hair is in knots, he has deep gashes on his arms and face, and there's blood dripping down from his mouth._

_I quickly turn my head before the blood drips onto my face, and it instead drips on my left ear. I groan at the disgusting feeling of the warm blood dripping on the side of my face._

_For a long moment it's quiet, the only sounds come from me as I grunt and struggle beneath the quiet monster. He starts to growl as I slowly loosen his grip on my wrists, but that's all he does. And as I suddenly free my right wrist and shove his face away from me, he snaps again and goes crazy._

_He tries to pin my wrists down again but I'm ready. I shove him away and get up, only to have him grab my ankles and pull me back down. We fight for the advantage for a minute but he soon wins it again, pinning me down once more._

_I close my eyes and accept that this is it. I'm going to get eaten by this monster and die all alone out here in this damn forest. Nobody is going to come help me._

_However, as I open my eyes, everything changes and I realize that it's not me being pinned down anymore. I'm the one pinning someone else down, but's it's not the same boy as before. This time it's Newt._

_He stares up at me with wide, terrified eyes. I can feel him shaking under me from fear._

_"Please y/n." he begs. "Don't do it."_

_Do what? Why would I hurt him? And why is he so scared of me?_

_I feel something warm running down my chin. Releasing the grip I had on Newts wrist, I bring my hand up to my face and wipe my mouth. I look back at my hand and notice a dark red smear on the back of my hand. I look down at my body and see my torn clothes and beaten body._

_I look back at Newt and something snaps, my body moves without me telling it too. My body bare's it's teeth, and suddenly dives straight to Newt's neck. There's a horrifying scream, then silence. I start screaming at myself, telling myself to stop, but nothing's working._

"STOP! STOP IT!" I suddenly feel pressure on my shoulders. "DON'T TOUCH ME! GET OFF!"

"Y/n! Calm down! Clam down!" someone says, gently shaking me.

I open my eyes for real this time, and see Newt standing in front of me while I'm sitting up in my hammock, his hands gripping my shoulders tightly.

Behind him I can see Minho, Alby, and all of the other boys staring at me. I look back down and put my head in my trembling hands.

"I'm sorry." I mumble into my hands.

"Sorry? For what?" Newt asks, lightly putting his hand on my shoulder.

I look up out of my hands, tears falling down my cheeks. "Everyone's awake because of me."

"We're fine y/n, I've been up and it's about time everyone else gets up anyways." Alby says, crouching in front of my hammock, a concerned look on his face. "Are you alright? Those can get pretty bad."

"Yeah. I'll be fine." I sigh, wiping my eyes before beginning to get up.

I glance around as everyone else gets out of their hammocks to get read and eat. Newt gently rubs my shoulder for a moment before going off the get ready himself.

Just as I finish tying up the laces on my shoes, Minho walks up and stops in front of me.

I look up at him as he crosses his arms, not from anger just from habit. "Why don't you take the short route today with Ben, I figured it'd be an easy day after yesterday and what happened this morning."

"Thanks Minho but I want to run the long route with you-"

He cuts me off by putting his hand up. "It's too late. I've already told Ben and I've already got a partner for the long run today."

I sigh, bouncing my leg and staring at him for a moment before grumbling, "Fine."

I make my way towards the east doors where Ben is already waiting for me with a smile on his face.

Once I get there Ben throws my pack at me and laughs, "Why are you so down? You're running the short route today, cheer up!"

I slide my pack over my shoulders and tighten the straps before frowning playfully. "You know I don't like being cooped up in the Glade, and I've already been stuck in here long enough."

"Just look on the bright side of getting back early."

"And what is that?" I ask, raising a brow.

"You can go eat something while everyone's working." he grins, wiggling his eyebrows.

I laugh. "Alright, cmon' shank. Let's go."

•••

I smile, enjoying the feeling of the wind on my face and throughout my hair as I run through the corridors of the Maze, mapping and memorizing each turn we take; not that I really need to memorize it at this point, we've been stuck in the Maze so long I've run this route too many times to even count. I don't mind running it repeatedly though. I feel free whenever I'm out here, and I have nobody to tell me what to do.

"Let's stop here y/n!" Ben calls out, interrupting my thoughts. So much for nobody telling me what to do.

I stop and turn around, putting my hands on my hips and catching my breath. After a moment we both sit down against the Maze wall and take out an apple and water. We sit and eat in silence, enjoying the calmness.

Suddenly a loud shriek comes from down the corridor. Stiffening, I turn my head towards the sound, and after a moment there's another loud shriek.

I worriedly glance at Ben before slowly getting up and making my way towards the sound. I turn right then head straight again towards another intersection. As I reach the second corner I nervously chew my bottom lip before peeking left around the corner.

My breath hitches in my throat and my eyes grow wide as I see a Griever.

I quickly turn back around the corner, breathing rapidly.

Ben furrows his brows, concern evident on his face. "What-" before he could finish his question I cover his mouth with my hand, silencing him and putting a finger to my own lips.

I hear the movement of machinery on the other side of the wall. I peek around the corner, only to find that the Griever was gone.

I let out a shaky sigh of relief before finally removing my hand from Ben's mouth. "What was a Griever doing out in the middle of the day?" I ask, frowning.

He shrugs. "Not sure but I think we should call it a day and head back."

I agree with him, making my way back towards where we left our bags. "I'll go get our bags then we can head off. I'll be right back."

Quickly jogging back to our spot, I grab our stuff and make my way back, freezing once I notice that Ben is gone.

"Ben?" I call out. "If this is a joke it's not very funny!" but there's still no reply. "That damn shank took off without me huh?" I question to nobody but myself.

I look around the area for a couple minutes before deciding that he must've just gone back to the Glade; hopefully he did. "Chicken." I grumble, jogging my way back home.

Heh, home.

It's funny how that's the word that I, and many others now use to describe the hell were trapped in. It's not like any of us remember what our homes were like, but they had to have been warm, safe, comfortable, some with big family's and some with small ones. The Glade isn't like that though, it's not warm and comfortable, and it certainly isn't safe. But the Glade does have one thing, a big family that looks out for each other. We know that having each other is the most important thing to have, because without it we'd be lost.

So, yeah. I guess the Glade is like my home. A little different, but we make it work.

Before I know it i'm already back at the Glade.

I quickly make my way to the map room, writing my route down before dropping my stuff of then leaving.

Walking out of the forest I find Newt working in the gardens, his blonde hair getting dirty from the dirt and sweat, his muscles flexing as he finishes digging before placing a plant in the hole.

I walk up to him. "Hey Newt." I say standing over him and blocking the sun.

He looks up at me then back down to the plant, covering the hole up with a couple pats. "Hey y/n. Your back early."

I laugh nervously. "Yeah, we uh- heard some sketchy noises out there so we decided to head back. Where's the Greenie?" I ask quickly trying to change the subject, it's best not to mention that we saw a Griever to Newt.

He looks up at me, narrowing his eyes. "I sent him into the forest to get some fertilizer. Where's Ben?"

My eyes widen. "Oh that's right. I was gonna go look for him. He took off without me, most likely to spook me."

"Did it work?"

I shrug. "A little. Anyways, I'll go look for him-"

"Help!" someone shouted from the forest, cutting me off.

I spun around to face the forest as someone continues to shout out for help.

Squinting, I make out Thomas being chased out of the forest, and once they get into the open Thomas gets tackled by his pursuer.

"Shit." I mumble running towards the commotion with Newt and the rest of the gladers in tow.

I get to Thomas, but before I can see who's on top of him Newt shoves me out of the way, swinging his shovel at the attacker's head, it connects with a thud before the person fell to the side. He rolls on his back and my face immediately falls as I see who it is; Ben.

"Hold him down!" Hold him!" Newt orders.

I shake my head and rush in to grab ahold of his left arm, Newt grabs the other, and Gally kneels down next to us.

"Ben you need to calm down." I tell him, tightening my grip as he struggles.

"What the hell happened?" Fry asks Thomas.

"He just attacked me out there!"

Chuck moves to Thomas to check if he's alright, but everyone's attention stays on Ben. He's calmed down a little but he's still breathing heavily, and he's got blood trailing down the side of his head from where Newt hit him.

Alby pushes through the crowd, stopping at Ben's feet. Ben begins to shake his head, squirming more.

"No. No, please." he begs.

"Lift his shirt." Alby orders.

Gally lifts the bottom of his shirt and we all freeze. On the right side of his stomach, just below his ribs, black and blue veins branch out, and just in the center is a hole about the size of a pencils eraser. Ben's chest quickly rises and falls as he cries for help.

"He's been stung." I state, staring with wide eyes first at the wound then at Alby.

"In the middle of the day?" Gally adds.

As Ben pleads, Alby thinks for a moment. He huffs then stands up before pointing at the makeshift jail cells we have. "Put him in the pit."

Ben thrashes around, begging for us to listen to him but Newt, Gally, the med-jacks, and I all lift him up and carry him away.

After we lock him up, Alby walks over to try and talk with Ben, but it's useless, he'll never talk. He's too far gone to come back now, and his condition will only get worse.

I quickly leave, getting to my hammock and lying down, covering my eyes with my arms.

I don't have much time to think everything over before I hear someone sit in the hammock beside me.

"It's my fault." I sigh, already knowing who's here.

"What is?" Newt asks.

I sit up and face him. "Ben getting stung."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because..." I let out a long sigh, not wanting to make Newt worry about me by telling him we saw a Griever, but also wanting to tell someone, and who better to tell then Newt. He's always been good at cheering me up, and I could really use something like that right about now.

"Because on our run we saw a Griever. We waited for it to leave and once it did I left Ben alone while I went to get our bags." I explained, putting my head in my hands and resting my arms on my thighs.

"Y/n-" he starts but I quickly cut him off, jumping up.

"And it's not like I was gone for long. I walked away for not even thirty seconds and, boom, he was gone. He didn't yell or scream for help, I thought he just left without me, wanting to scare me. So, I left without another thought and came back. What if I had looked for him out there? Would I have been able to find and help him?" I ramble.

"Y/n." Newt says calmly, but I just keep going.

"Y/n!" he says louder this time.

I stop pacing and stare at him.

"There's nothing you did wrong, and nothing you could've done. This just happened by chance. No one was at fault, especially you."

I gulp anxiously, taking a seat and closing my eyes. "Okay. You win again Newt. Your right like always."

He hums in agreement. "I am right a lot huh."

I roll my eyes, laughing softly. "Sure."

•••

As the sun begins to set, everyone gathers in front of the doors. Winston, Gally, Newt, Alby, Fry, Zart, and I all stand in the center with long wooden polls that have a flat part on the end. All the other Gladers make half a circle around us and the still open doors.

We all watch as Minho guides Ben towards us with his arms tied behind his head, the whole time Ben begs Minho to let him go.

Minho stops right in front of the doors and Ben drops to his knees. Minho cuts the rope from behind his head, causing the sick boy to drop on his hands and cough up gross fluids, making me look away.

"No, please." Ben trembles as Minho throws a bag of meat into the corridors of the Maze.

Soon the doors begin to rumble, the familiar air from the Maze rushing at us. Ben tries to back away but Alby orders us to get our polls ready.

"Move in!" Alby commands as the doors begin to close for the night.

We start off slow but end up having to shoving him towards the door with the ends of our polls. Ben continues to back up and lightly smack the polls away from him. But soon he starts to push back on the polls, causing us to shove him with even more force.

"Stop it! Please, I can get better! I promise!" he reasons, but nobody's listening. We all know he can't control how fast the sickness takes over his mind, and we know he wouldn't be able to control his actions soon.

We eventually forced Ben between the almost shut doors, and with one last shove from Alby's poll, Ben retreats to the other side of the doors.

He continues to sob as the doors shut inch by inch, and at the last second he screams before we get completely sealed off from Ben and the Maze.

I stare at my toes, not wanting to look up and see everyone's reaction.

I look up as Alby says one thing, "He belongs to the Maze now." before walking off.

I lean my poll against the stone walls and walk past Thomas, silently heading towards my hammock.

The last thing I hear before I fall asleep is the sound of metal tapping against stone as Gally scratches out Ben's name off the wall of everyone else's.

•••

I wake up to the unpleasant feeling of getting hit in the stomach with something heavy.

Grumbling, I open my eyes and looking down at the pack laying on my stomach before glancing up at Minho as he stands in front of me.

"A simple nudge would suffice you know?" I say.

"Yeah, but that's no fun." he says smirking. "Now c'mon Alby's coming with us today remember."

"Yeah. I'll be up in a minute." I mumble closing my eyes again.

"Nope." he grunts as he tips my hammock over, thankfully I catch myself before my face can hit the ground.

I mutter a few curse words directed at Minho as he laughs. I get up and brush the dirt of myself, grab my pack off the ground, and glare at him.

Rolling my eyes, I fix my hammock and sit in it to put my shoes on.

"Okay, ready." I say, hopping up and slinging my pack over my shoulder.

Minho and I talk quietly by the Maze doors, waiting for Alby.

"You think he made it?" I ask Minho, glancing down the Maze corridor.

"Ben?" he says, looking in the same direction as me before quickly replying, "No. If someone who's not even sick can't survive a night in the Maze, then there's no way Ben survived."

I nod, turning around as Alby and Newt walk up to us.

"Be careful out there shanks." Newt says, eyeing each of us.

"Don't worry mom, we will." Minho teases.

Newt sighs, rolling his eyes as Alby and I laugh.

"Don't worry Newt, we'll be fine." I assure him, before bolting out into the Maze with the other two boys.

•••

It's been three hours of running before we finally stop. I feel like I could run another three, but Minho and I could both hear Alby's harsh breaths as he slows down behind us. We all sit down and take food out of our packs; an apple, a small sandwich, and some water.

"I will never understand how you Runners do it." Alby says, leaning his head back against the wall, still catching his breath. "You guys look like you've only been running for thirty minutes."

"Yeah, not everyone can last as long as I can." Minho says, flexing his arms. "Not even y/n."

I scoff, "Slim it shank, I can last as long as you can."

"How about a race then? Whoever makes it to section seven first wins."

Before I could accept the challenge Alby interrupts me, "Let's not do that. I'd rather not be left behind."

"Fine." I sigh, taking the last bite of my apple, chucking the core away from us. "But next time it's just you and me Minho, your on."

After a couple more minutes of rest, we pack up and start running again.

Another two hours pass by, and as I'm running behind Minho I glance up at the sky. In front of us the giant clouds are dark grey and you could see the occasional lightning flash in them.

"Hey," I shout, slowing down to a stop as the others do the same. "those look like rain clouds." I say pointing up.

Minho nods, "We should go back. Running in the rain is horrible, especially for my hair."

I roll my eyes as Alby and I both agree.

Minho's not wrong, the Maze is really difficult to run through when wet. Everything's slippery, and you have to slow down when turning corners. And yes, it does mess up my hair.

Alby and I turn and start running but stop once we realize Minho isn't behind us. I look back and see Minho frozen, staring with wide eyes at something around the corner.

"Minho! Let's go!" I call out, impatiently crossing my arms.

He shushes me before calling us both over. I sigh and make my way back towards him. He points around the corner and as soon as I look at what he's pointing at my heart drops.

About thirty feet away a Griever lays unmoving.

I stay frozen in my spot, not taking my eyes off the giant disgusting, spider-like monster as it stays curled up on the ground. It has sharp metallic legs, it's bulbous body has spikes sticking out the top, and there's goo all around and over it's body.

After what felt like an hour, I relax a little. It hasn't moved at all, and it does look dead by the way it's laying. I begin to move closer but Alby quickly grabs my wrist and stops me.

"What the hell do you think your doing y/n?! That's a Griever!" he whisper yells.

I turn around. "By the looks of it, it's dead, Alby. Are we really gonna waste this opportunity to see if that thing will give us some type of clue to get out?" I ask. "This is the closest we've gotten to something in a long time. Let's just check it out."

I can see Alby debating this whole thing in his head before he finally drops my wrist. "Okay, but fast, it'll be pouring soon."

I nod, feeling drops of rain beginning to hit me.

Minho and Alby slowly walk up to the Griever with me.

This thing has to be dead right?

It's not going to just jump up suddenly?

It can't be smart enough to fool us.

Right?

Wrong. I was so so wrong.

Ten feet away from us, the Griever suddenly jumps to life. We all immediately scream and begin to run away, but the Griever quickly chases us.

The rain gets harder, pouring down on us, as the Griever lets out an ear piercing shriek.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.

We take a sharp right turn, my footing slipping a little bit, but thankfully not enough to make me fall.

No matter how many turns we take the Griever stays right on our heals and I begin to notice Alby slowing down.

I grab his arm and pull him forward. "Don't slow down! Keep pushing!"

He nods but is unable to speed up. Ahead of us, Minho shouts for us to run faster. But Alby just can't do it.

Suddenly, he trips.

"Alby!" I scream, sliding to a stop, almost falling.

I turn around and run back to him, Minho right behind me.

But it's too late. The Griever gets to him first and quickly stings him in his stomach.

Alby screams in pain as Minho and I take out small machetes from our packs, rushing at the Griever.

Minho gets there first and swiftly swings his weapon at the monsters metal stinger, breaking it off. Minho hauls Alby up and away as I go towards the Griever's mechanical leg, swinging and hitting the leg, the monster shifts but doesn't fall. It lets out a shriek before swiping its sharp leg at me. The rain hinders my vision, and I'm unable to dive out of the way.

I hiss in pain and grab my upper left arm, immediately feeling something warm and sticky ooze between my fingers.

Before the Griever can do anymore harm to me, Minho pushes me aside and rushes towards it. He shouts in rage as he kicks one of the creatures legs out from under it, causing it to fall. He brings his machete down and slices part of its body. It lets out one last shriek before getting up and running away.

I clench my eyes shut in pain as Minho rushes over to me.

"What's wrong?" he asks frantically.

I squint open my eyes as his land on my hand that's now covered in blood, my shirt sleeve around the wound is cut and stained red.

"Shit." he mutters, looking up at me.

He pushes the hair that's sticking to the sides of my face away before getting my attention.

"Y/n. Can you walk? Your not dizzy?"

I nod my head and give him and weak thumbs up with my left hand, letting him know that I'm fine.

He rushes to Alby, reaching to grab his arms, when suddenly Alby's eyes snap open. He lunges at Minho and tackles him to the ground, pinning him down.

As Minho struggles under Alby I scan the area around me for some kind of weapon, then I suddenly remember my machete.

"Minho!" I shout, getting him to look at me for a moment while Alby continues to try and scratch him. I quickly slide the machete to Minho and he seems to get the idea. He picks it up and slams the weapons handle against Alby's head, knocking him unconscious.

"Thanks." Minho says breathlessly. He grabs Alby's arms and lifts him up, putting one of the unconscious boys arms across his shoulders. "Hurry, lets go." he says, dragging Alby along.

We begin to make our way back to the Glade in the pouring rain, the only noise is the rain dropping against the stone and Minho's heavy breaths.

•••

"Almost there y/n." Minho pants ahead of me.

The rain stopped about an hour ago, but the pain in my arm hasn't gone away at all. It's difficult to keep my eyes open as I slowly drag my wet feet, too tired to walk any faster.

My right hand feels like it's dried to my arm, the blood crusting and hardening to my sleeve and hand.

At the pace we're going, we're never going to make it to the Glade. I'm never going to see Frypan, Gally, Winston, Chuck, Jeff, Newt... Oh god. Newts gonna take one look at my arm and make sure I never step foot outside of the Glade.

But I need to stop thinking about that, it's giving me a major headache, and I already feel horrible as is.

"Y/n! We're gonna make it!" Minho calls out to me in disbelief. "Just one more turn then we're there!"

I grin, but it's immediately replaced with fear as I hear the familiar rumble of the doors, meaning they'll be closing very soon.

As we turn around the corner many familiar voices begin to shout at us. Telling us that we're so close.

"C'mon you guys can make it!"

"Don't slow down!"

"You can do it!"

As I look up I see the group of boys at the end of the corridor, frantically waving us over.

The doors then start to close, giving us only about twenty five seconds to make it through.

Minho and I pick up our pace, Minho now dragging Alby's limp body behind him. But after a moment Minho drops Alby's body, moving to try and get a better grip on him.

"Leave him!" someone shouts, but we know we can't just do that, not after everything that's happened.

There's only fifteen seconds left when Minho shouts at me, "Y/n! You need to go!"

"I'm not leaving you!" I say frantically.

"Just go! Now!" he orders.

I hesitate, looking at the doors then back to Minho, making a quick decision to do what Minho says.

I have ten seconds left as I race through the doors and safely into the Glade, collapsing against Newt.

Turning back around, I watch as Thomas rushes through the doors with only moments left.

"Thomas!" everyone shouts at him.

But it's no use, he's already on the other side when the doors shut for the night.

Everyone's quiet for a couple moments.

Standing in disbelief, too shocked to speak or move. There's three Gladers stuck in the Maze for the night, and all we can do is wait till morning to see if they make it.

They have to make it. Minho has to get them through the night.

But a small, faint voice tells me they won't make it. Because nobody survives a night in the Maze.

People slowly start to walk away, talking silently as they go to their hammocks to lay down.

Newt kneels down and grasps my shoulders. "Are you okay?" he asks, looking over my body.

His eyes stop once he gets to my left arm that's covered by my right hand, the dried blood is all over my sleeve and hand.

I wince as he gently grabs my arm.

"How'd this happen?" he asks, worry visible on his face.

"A Griever. I couldn't see because of the rain and it moved too quick for me so it got my arm. Nothing else though, I'm fine." I shrug, trying to make it seem like it's no big deal.

"Come on." he says, getting up and pulling me with him. "We're going to get this cleaned up, then we'll get you to bed. You've had enough for today."

"But-" I start, but he quickly cuts me off with a glare.

I quickly shut up and follow along behind him.

Newt sits me down in the med-jack hut, pulling up a chair next to me while Clint and Jeff walk in with new bandages.

"What happened out there?" Jeff asks worriedly over his shoulder as he reaches up on a shelf.

I frown, looking anywhere but at the three boys in the room. "Basically, we saw a Griever that looked dead but when we went to investigate, it jumped up and chased us for a while. Then it started to rain, which slowed us down, and Alby got stung." I look up at their saddened faces after I mention Alby. "The Griever scratched me, Minho chased it away, and then we left. That's all."

Jeff nods as he crosses the room towards me, "Okay, at least you're safe. We should get this cleaned up now."

I nod, grimacing as I slowly take my right hand off my left arm, the skin around the wound peeling and opening back up, letting more blood soak into my sleeve and down my arm.

Once my hand is off, Clint carefully cuts off my sleeve just above the wound.

I look to my right at Newt. He's staring intently at my arm as Clint cuts, frowning every time I wince.

Clint sighs as he gets the sleeve off, looking at how bad my injury actually is. He looks up at me and frowns, gently grasping my arm. "It's not pretty y/n. The wound is deep, but luckily not deep enough to need stitches. So we'll just have to keep it bandaged."

"Thats not that bad." I sigh, looking down at it.

It's hard to see how deep it is from all the blood, but the gash is at least two inches long, and the skin around it is a bright red.

I wince as Clint suddenly touches the wound, carefully inspecting it.

After Clint checks it, Jeff cleans it up before putting on bandaging.

Once Jeff finishes wrapping my arm, Clint gives me a cup of water, "Make sure you drink plenty of water, It'll help you heal." he tells me.

I take the cup and finish it quickly, realizing how thirsty I really am.

I look back down at my arm and see that blood has already began to seep through the bandage.

Clint notices me frowning at the red bandage, "It'll only bleed like that for a day. After that it'll just be sore." he sets extra bandages aside on a separate table. "Just make sure you come in tomorrow and we'll change it."

"Okay." I nod, getting up. "Thanks guys."

The two nod as I walk out, Newt following along behind me.

"How are you feeling?" I ask him once we get outside.

"I'm just worried about Minho, Alby, and the Greenie. And I just don't know what to do with Alby gone because now all the responsibilities are on me."

"Hey," I say, stopping and turning to him. "we're all worried about them. And you don't have to worry about all that stuff on your own, I'll help you. We'll run the Glade until Alby and the others get back, because they will be back. Minho can get them through the night."

It's quiet for a moment as Newt stares down at me. I stare into his brown eyes and I see so many emotions in them; worry, stress, anxiousness.

He hangs his head down before pulling me into a tight embrace, being careful of my arm.

I stand there frozen, unsure of what to do, but my mind quickly catches up to reality and my right arm wraps around him.

We stand there for a moment before he pulls away, smiling softly down at me. "Thank you y/n." he says.

"Your welcome." I say with a small smile.

As we walk back to our hammocks, my smile disappears. I can't stop thinking I did the wrong thing by leaving Minho and the others behind. I feel guilty for taking the cowards way out and running. I'm also worried about them; what if they can't make it through the night? What if I never see them again and the last thing they remember of me is that I ran.

I shake my head, shifting in my hammock. I did what Minho needed and wanted me to do.

I close my eyes and fall into an uncomfortable and restless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just watched the whole maze runner series bc it was on tv 😙✌🏼 guys I actually sobbed when it got to- that part. can’t wait to start writing for the death cure movie, I got plans :)  
> make sure to leave kudos, love you guys <3


	10. Chapter Ten: The Last One

Immediately after waking up, I feel a dull, throbbing pain in my arm. I sit myself up and look down at the bandage covering my upper arm, grimacing as I see the once white wrapping is now mostly red.

I glance around the Glade, noticing it's still pretty dark, the sun still hidden behind the towering walls.   
I look at the watch on my wrist that's given to all the runners; 5:43 am.   
Damn it's still pretty early, nobody's gonna be up.

I look at the closed Maze doors, the ones were we last saw Minho, Thomas, and Alby, and where I ran like a coward. Half of me thinks that they'll be okay and are on the other side of the doors, waiting for them to open, but the other half doesn't think they made it through the night.   
But the thought of losing the three of them, especially Minho and Alby makes me sick. We've gone through too much together for this to be their end.

Getting up, I silently walk to the med-jacks hut. The cold air giving me goosebumps, and the damp grass making my shoes wet.   
I normally enjoy the early morning silence of the Glade; but not today. The mood doesn't feel right, and it'll stay like this until those doors open and we find out if the boys made it or not. If they made it we'll all be happy and relieved and things will go back to normal, but if they didn't, it'd be too depressing in the Glade.

I immediately feel a small rush of warmth as I push open the door to the med-jacks hut, it's not much but it beats the outside temperature.

I find the bandages that Clint set aside for me, and sit myself on a bed.  
I wince as I unwrap the bandage, but notice today's pain is definitely better than yesterday's. I set the blood soaked bandage aside, grabbing the fresh one and beginning to wrap it myself.

After multiple attempts, all ending with the bandaging unwinding and falling off my arm, I give up. Sighing heavily, I drop the wrap and lay back on the bed with a huff.

"Need help there?" Newt suddenly asks from the doorway, making me jump. He has his arms crossed and a slightly amused look on his face.

I put my hand over my frantically beating heart, trying to calm it down. "Don't do that you shank! I don't wanna add a heart attack to my list of injuries."

He smiles softly for a moment, walking over and stopping in front of me with his hand out, his smile dropping. "Give it here." 

I roll my eyes, putting the bandage in his hand and letting him gently grasp my left arm.

He looks at my wound, careful not to touch and reopen it.  
"How does it feel right now?" he asks, glancing up at me.

"Uh, on a scale of one to ten; a five and a half. It's not as bad as yesterday."

"Good." he sighs. He turns around and grabs a cup of water and a small towel, wetting the rag then gently dabbing it against my skin, cleaning off the blood.  
I silently watch him put all his concentration into tending to my arm, and bandaging it up to finish.

"Thanks." I mumble, not able to look him in the eye.  
He nods before motioning with his head for me to follow him outside.

I hop off the table and catch up to him just outside the door. We walk in silence, listening to all the quiet sounds in the Glade. Everything seems so peaceful; the bugs buzzing, the very slight breeze blowing through the trees, and the birds chirping. I could almost think that everything is perfect and that I'm having a relaxing day. But I'm not.  
It's too quiet, and it's making me uncomfortable. 

"The doors are going to open in about an hour," Newt says as we approach the towering doors. "I'm just going to sit and wait, you don't have to if you don't want to."

I shake my head, "I'm waiting here too, and I'm sure the others will once they wake up."

He nods, leaning his head back against the wall and resting his arms on his propped up knees.

We sit and wait in silence for what seems like hours. Just as I said, the other Gladers began waking up and joining us around the entrance to wait. Chuck sits between me and Newt.  
"Do you think they made it?" he asks, glancing at the two of us.

Newt hesitates, before answering, "No."

Chuck frowns, before looking at me. 

I sigh, rubbing my face with my hands. "I don't know. Maybe? I mean, I'm obviously hoping they did."

The younger boy looks down, pulling at the grass under him. "I think they'll make it."

After that nobody responds, everyone wishes the boys are on the other side but in reality we all know that nobody has ever survived a night in the Maze. Their chances are too low.

A couple minutes later I jump to my feet as the walls begin to rumble, signaling that the doors will open in seconds.  
My hearts beating rapidly as I pray the three are waiting on the other side.

Chuck gets everyone up off the ground and they soon gather beside me.

But when the doors open at least five feet, my heart drops into my stomach; they're not there.

"I told you Chuck." Newt sighs. "They're not coming back."

I turn around, letting out a huff of defeat and begin to follow the rest of the Gladers away from the doors, leaving Chuck behind. I feel the tears start to build up at the thought of never seeing them again.

"No way." Zart says behind me.

I turn around as Chuck cheers, my eyes widening as Minho and Thomas carry Alby by his arms down the corridor.

"Oh my god." I say in disbelief, wiping my eyes. "They did it."

They make it back into the Glade and set Alby down on the ground, everyone huddling around the boys.

"You saw a Griever?" Chuck asks, looking from Alby to Thomas.  
"Yeah." he replies breathing heavily.

Minho shakes his head. "He didn't just see it. He killed it."

I freeze and stare at Thomas, too shocked to say or do anything else. And judging by how quiet it is, everyone else is the same way.  
Out of all the years I've spent here, nobody has seen a Griever and lived to tell about it, except for recently. And now the Greenie who's only been here for three days, sees one and kills it. We obviously have to do something, maybe this is our way out. 

Thomas looks around at each of our shocked expressions, not saying anything.

Gally soon storms up, breaking us all out of our own thoughts. "Get Alby to the med-jack hut." he orders. Clint and Jeff nod, calling a few guys to help carry Alby.  
"And the rest of you, get to the hall, now. I'm calling a gathering." Gally finishes.

I stand up, crossing my arms. "Who says your in charge?"

"Well, someone has to step up since Alby is out. I guess that person is me." 

"No. That person is Newt. Not you." I snap, walking closer to him. "He was second in command behind Alby, which means when Alby's not around to be in charge, we listen to Newt."

"Well, I don't hear him making any decisions, when he clearly should. And what are you huh?" Gally growls. "Your not in charge either."

I glare at him, "If you'd just-" I start before Newt places his hand on my shoulder and Gallys, shaking his head.

"You guys are both right. I'm the one in charge now, and I clearly didn't make a decision when I should have." he reasons. "Gally is right, we should call a gathering." he turns to everyone. "And y/n is behind me, so right now she's my second in command. You'll be listening to her too." he states.

A small smile escapes into my lips, thankful that Newt gave me some kind of command so I can help. I smirk at Gally before heading somewhere to calm down.

I end up walking off into the deadheads, finding a cool spot to sit and relax that's not too far from the center of the Glade. 

Soon enough, I see everyone walking to the homestead. I get up and make my way over, slipping inside and standing at the front of the room next to Newt.

Once all the Gladers are settled down into seats, Gally begins, "Things are obviously changing."  
Everyone quiets down as he continues.   
"First, Ben is stung in broad daylight. And then Alby." He motions to where Thomas is sitting, "And now our Greenie, here, has taken it upon himself to go into the Maze."  
He stares out at the group sitting, before continuing, "Which is a clear violation of our rules here."

"He did save Alby's life." Fry comments behind me.

Gally raises his brow at Frypan. "Did he?" he glances around at everyone. Nobody says anything, as he goes on. "For three years we've lived with these things. And now," Gally turns and points an accusing finger at Thomas, "you've killed one of them. What do you think will happen now?"

"Well what do you want us to do Gally?" I ask, throwing my hands up, finding no need for this gathering at all.

"He has to be punished." Gally answers simply.

Shouts erupt around the room, nobody agreeing with Gally's solution. Everyone having something to say all at once. And I agree with all of them; he killed a Griever and saved Alby's life. How could someone be punished for that?

I frown and listen quietly as Newt gets everyone's attention, quieting them down. "Minho. You were there with him. What do you think we should do?"

All the attention shifts to Minho. He sighs, looking from the crowd to Thomas, then back to Newt. "I think, over all the years we've been here, no one has ever killed a Griever." He pauses, crossing his arms and looking down in shame. "When I turned tail and ran, this dumb shank stayed behind to help Alby. Listen, I don't know if he's brave, or stupid. But whatever it is, we need more of it." He looks across the crowd before his eyes land on me. "I say we make him a runner."

More questions and comments are shouted out, some not thinking making the Greenie a Runner is a good idea. But I think it's a great idea. Whatever Minho thinks, I'll support it.  
I stand up straight, grinning wide. I catch Minho waiting for my reaction across the room, his eyebrow raised in silent question. I nod my head, letting him know I think he made a smart move.

Gally quiets everyone as he begins shouting, yet again, "If you wanna throw the Newbie a party that's fine, be my guest. But if there's one thing that I know about the Maze, It's that you do not-"

A loud rumbling and blaring alarm cuts him off. Newt and I worriedly look at each other as the alarm for the box continues before everyone runs outside.

Gally makes it out first, followed by Newt and I, then the rest of the Gladers.

The alarm shouldn't be going off for the box. Why is it going off? We just got a new Greenie, it isn't supposed to come up for another month. Something has to be wrong, this has to be an accident.

I'm pulled out of my thought as I follow Gally and Newt, the three of us sprinting to the box.  
We get there and I watch over Newt and Gally's shoulders as they pull up on the metal doors. The rest of the Gladers stop behind me as Newt jumps down into the box.

I furrow my brows in confusion at the girl lying still on the floor. Her straight black hair spread all around her head. She's thin, but definitely not small, so I'd actually say about average. She has on a blue shirt, with a thin white jacket over it, black jeans, and a pair of running shoes.

"What do you see Newt?" Fry asks, stopping to the right of me and getting a look himself.

"It's a girl." Newt states. He looks up at the rest of us, confusion on his and everyone else's face. 

Thomas pushes through the small crowd and stops to my left, peering down at the Greenie.

"I think she's dead." Newt mutters.

Looking over her, my eyes stop at her pale hand. Her fingers are wrapped around a white piece of paper.  
"What's that in her hand?" I ask, pointing towards the paper.

Newt hesitantly crouches down and takes the paper out of the girls hand. After unfolding it he stares at it for a moment.  
"She's the last one... ever." he reads, looking up at everyone. "What the hell does that mean?"

Not even giving us time to process anything, the girl suddenly sits upright, gasping loudly.  
We all jump at the sudden movement, unsure of what she'll do.

She lays her head back down, breathing harshly. She slows down and stops for a moment.  
"Thomas..." she breaths, before slowly panting until she passes out again and stops.

All of our eyes go from the girl to Thomas. He glances around at all of us, a look of confusion on his face that looks just like the rest of ours.   
Well, except for Gally, he looks more angry than confused.

"Still think I'm overreacting?" He asks everyone, raising his eyebrows.

I look back down at the girl, so many questions running through my head. Like, why is she here? We're not supposed to have another Greenie now, and it's a girl to top it off. And what about the note, do they really mean it? Have we really gotten that comfortable and content with just living in the Glade that they need to threaten us so we'll hurry. If the box doesn't come back up with more supplies, we'll have to hurry because we can only live off what we have for a little while longer.

"Y/n, help me get her out. Clint and Jeff, one of you go get a spot ready in the med-jacks hut while the other helps us. As for the rest of you, just go back to work." Newt orders.

The rest hesitantly leave but Chuck comes up to me with Thomas behind him. "What do I do with Thomas?" he asks.

"Just bring him with you to get something to eat. I bet he's hungry after everything last night." I tell him, glancing at Thomas.   
Chuck nods before practically dragging Thomas along behind him. 

I turn back towards the box and crouch down as Jeff jumps down to help Newt lift the girl up. I reach down and grab ahold of both her wrists and heave her up. She's not heavy to it was pretty easy, but she must be out good to go through all that and not even stir.

The two boys climb out of the box, Newt grabbing onto my hand, letting me help him up. Jeff lifts the girl up while Newt and I close the doors before we head to the med-jacks hut.

•••

Crossing my arms, I look down at the girl lying on the bed in front of me. Her breathing is calm and even, and her black hair is covering most of her face.

There has to be a reason she's here. The box came up very early with nothing but her and a note inside it. And all of this right after Thomas came up, survived a night in the Maze, saved Alby's life, and killed a Griever. Things are definitely beginning to change, ever since Thomas got here; but I don't think it's a bad change like Gally does, he's just being paranoid.

I jump as Jeff accidentally knocks over a bottle of liquid and breaks me out of my thoughts.

"Sorry." he mumbles, quickly reaching down to pick it up before all of the contents spill out onto the floor.

"It's fine," I sigh, pushing my hair out of my face then resting my hands on the top my head. "I just-" I pause, realizing how stupid this will sound, dropping my hands to my side, "I don't know what's happening right now."

He nods, "Yeah, everything has gotten pretty crazy since Thomas came."

"Exactly." I agree. "I think Thomas and this girl," I motion to the bed, "are connected. I don't know how, but I just feel it."

"She did wake up for a split second in the box and say only his name. That could be where your getting the connection from."

"Yeah I think so." I nod, staring at the girl.

"What do you think about this?" Jeff asks.

I look up and see him unfolding the note that came up with the girl. He reads it over before flipping it around to show me again.  
She's the last one EVER.  
Those five black letters tell us so much, yet so little. We want to know, why a girl as the last one? Why is there even going to be a last one? Are we running out of time? Because I had no idea there even was a time limit to our hell. But the only information we're left with is knowing that we better get out before we run out of the resources the box provides.

"I think they want us to hurry this whole thing up already." I shrug. "Either they're getting tired of watching us do nothing for years, or they're running out of time for something."

He looks over the note for a moment before folding it up and placing it back on the table. Everything is silent except for the distant sound of people working and Alby's grunting and thrashing in the other room.

Moments later, Newt walks through the door, followed by Minho and Thomas. The new boys eyes lingering on Alby as he passes by his room. They all stop beside me and look at the girl.

"Jeff, what's the matter with her? Why isn't she waking up?" Newt asks quickly.

Jeff shrugs, "I don't know man. I got my job the same way as all of you."

Newt frowns, obviously not wanting an answer like that. He crosses his arms and looks at Thomas.   
"Do you recognize her?" he asks.

I wait for his answer, hoping he'd have something to tell us so we're not completely lost, or something that would connect him to the girl.

"No." Thomas mumbles. "I don't know who she is."

"Really?" Newt says. "Because she seemed to recognize you."

Everyone becomes quiet, looking at the unconscious girl. Someone shifts in the corner, slightly startling me. I glance to my right and just now notice another boy standing in the room. His brown curls bounce and he turns to look at me, waving slightly.  
I simply turn away, seeming rude, but not trying to be. There's just a lot on everyone's minds right now.

"What about the note." Thomas asks, gaining everyone's attention again.

"Well we'll worry about the note later." Newt mumbles.

I frown. "Newt, I think the note is something we should be worrying about now."  
Thomas and Minho both nod their heads in agreement.

Newt looks at the others then me. "We've got enough to deal with at the moment."

"No Newt. She's right." Jeff pipes up. "If the box doesn't come back up, how long do you think we can last?"

Newt quickly licks his lips, a small habit of his I've noticed he does when thinking quickly. "No one said that. Let's not jump to any conclusions. We'll just-" he pauses, looking at the girl. "We'll just wait until she wakes up and see what she knows. Somebody has to have some answers around here."

Thomas nods, muttering something to himself before turning around and heading out the door.

"And where are you going?" Newt asks, his brows furrowing as we watch Thomas walk away from us.

"Back into the Maze." Thomas responds over his shoulder, already out the door.

I furrow my brows, sharing a very confused look with Minho and Newt. Minho sighs and jogs out after Thomas.

I silently watch Newt as he turns his attention back to the girl, crossing his arms and frowning.  
I take a few steps forwards and stand by him, copying his stance.

"So," I start, shifting my gaze from the girl to Newt. "thought of anything yet?"

He turns and looks into my eyes. "Honestly y/n, I don't know what we're going to do."

His response is honest and straight forward. I can hear the worry in his voice and see it in his eyes. They're normally bright- well, as bright as brown eyes can get, but now they seem darker. I'd normally see his big chocolate brown eyes filled with confidence, but right now they're unsure, worried about what'll happen next. I can't just leave him alone with all these decisions.

"Hey," I say gently, stepping a little closer to him, having to tilt my head up a tiny bit because of the height difference. "These are tough decisions, I know, but you don't have to handle them all by yourself. I'm here as your second in command," I smile, making fun of the small position Newt gave me back when we first set up the positions and rules. "you also have Minho and maybe even Thomas, if he stops being a dumb shank."

He laughs, resting his hands on my shoulders and pulling me into a hug. "Thank you y/n. I'll make sure to share the work." he smirks. 

"You better." I smile, poking him in the chest after we pull apart.   
"Okay," I sigh. "I'll be out and about. If you need anything, just find me."

He nods as I wave bye to him, Jeff, and the other boy, who's name I actually don't know. Which is pretty funny considering I talk to almost everyone.  
I walk out the doors, making my way across the Glade only to be stopped by Minho.

•••

"So you want me, Fry, Winston, and Zart," I begin, an eyebrow raised, "to go with you and Thomas, into the Maze about and hour before sundown and search a dead Griever's body for anything that can help us out of here?"

Minho nods, looking around the small group he gathered. "So?"

I look beside me at the other boys. They look nervous, especially since they've never run the Maze. 

"Well I'm for sure going." I say, not even having to think about it. If Minho and Thomas go back into the Maze there's no way I'm leaving them again, I won't chicken out like last time. I walk forwards, standing next to Minho, now facing the others. 

"Guys?" Minho asks, raising his brow. "We're running out of time here, you don't wanna cut it close right?"

Frypan sighs, "What the hell, I'm in." He steps forward and soon the other two follow his lead.

"Okay good." Minho nods, a small smirk on his lips. "Let's get Thomas then go."  
He turns on his heels and quickly makes his way to the map room, our small group following along behind him.

•••

"Is this enough?" Minho asks Thomas as we approach him. 

He stands up straight from leaning against the building, surveying our group. "Okay." he nods. "Let's go."

•••

"You do know where the Griever is right?" I ask Minho beside me, "Because, you've seemed unsure of every turn we've taken."

"Slim it y/n. We're almost there." Minho says as he leads us through the corridors, slowing down at each turn to remember which way to go.

I do a quick one-eighty and continue to jog backwards. "Havin' fun back there guys?" I grin.

Thomas seems fine, he's keeping a good pace with Minho and I, but the others are really slowing down.  
"Y/n... If you don't... shut up..." Fry says between breaths, "I'll make sure... you never get a good meal... again." 

"We aren't made to run... like you two shanks." Zart pants.

I put my hands up in defense, "Seems like nobody likes to have fun around here."  
As I turn back around I run right into the back of Minho, my nose smacking the back of his head hard. "Owww." I whine, grabbing my nose and rubbing it gently.

"You had that one coming y/n." Minho laughs, rubbing the back of his head.

"Yeah, serves you right." Fry jokes, catching his breath once he stops next to us. 

The rest of the boys stop with Fry. I can see them attempting to hold back their laughter but before long they can't hold it in.

I huff, rolling my eyes. "Yeah, Yeah. Whatever, laugh it up."   
I cross my arms and walk away from them, soon stopping dead in my tracks. My eyes widen as Minho walks past me.

"Here it is." Minho says, stopping in front of the dead Griever.

Its body is squished between the doors that close while the Maze changes. Two of its metal legs are sticking out, reaching for what must've been Thomas as he led it through the corridor to its death. The Grievers guts are spilling out through the crack in the wall, making the area smell putrid.

Zart cringes at the sight and smell. "That's disgusting."

Thomas squints, "Look there's something in there." he mutters.

"You mean besides a Griever pancake?" Fry mumbles.

I squint, looking harder at the gap in the wall to try and find what Thomas and Minho see, but all that's there is black space. 

I look back at Minho with an eyebrow raised. "How are we supposed to search it, if it's stuck in the shucking wall?"

Minho ignores my question and approaches the squished Griever.

"Whoa, whoa whoa, what are you doing?" Zart asks him, stopping the boy in his tracks.

Minho looks at the rest of us before turning back towards the wall. He reaches his hand into the opening, searching the Grievers dead body for what him and Thomas saw. His had squishes around and suddenly the Grievers metal legs move.

Everyone jumps back, Thomas grabbing Minho and pulling him back with the rest of us.

"I thought you said it was dead." Fry says.

Zart looks at us. "Was it a reflex?" 

"You hope." Winston answers, his brows furrowed as he and everyone else watches the Griever closely.

"Okay, come on. Let's try to pull it out." Thomas says.

He goes and grabs the end of one of the Grievers legs, picking it up as the others pick up other parts of the Griever.   
I stand back, refusing to go near that thing; not because I'm scared, it just smells horrible. And if any of the slime from it's body gets on me, I think I'll puke. So, I'll just let the boys handle this.

On the count of three they pull on the Grievers leg, needing a couple tugs before they're finally able to pull its leg off its body.

They brush themselves off as Minho is once again the one who steps up to search the body. I step closer, ignoring the stench and looking through the pile of guts with Minho.  
"What's that right there?" I ask, pointing at something shiny inside a pile at Minho's feet.  
He crouches down and pulls a cylinder metal object out of an organ, or something. I cringe at the goo that drips from Minho's hand, but focus my attention on the object.

"What the hell is that? And what was it doing inside of there?" I ask, eyeing the object in disgust.

"Okay, whatever it is, can we take it back to the Glade?" Fry asks looking around nervously. "Because I don't wanna meet this guys friends."

"He's right." Minho agrees. "It's getting late. Let's go."

I turn and start jogging, leading the way back to the Glade. Minho catches up to me and runs on my right side.   
I reach my hand out and he puts the slimy object in my hand. Ignoring the smelly goo, I look over the metal, turning it in my hands to find anything that'll tell us what it is. Theres a red blinking light on one side and on the other is a small digital box with the number seven in red, just below it is a small gold color plaque with the letters WCKD printed on in black.

"Here." I mutter, tossing the object back to Minho. "We'll show Newt once we get back to the Glade."

Minho simply catches it and nods.   
Nobody says anything else until we get back.

•••

Minho hands the silver object to Newt. "This is what we found."

"It was inside a Griever." Thomas adds as Newt turns it over in his hands.

We called a meeting between each of the Keepers to see what we found and figure out something to do.

I stand beside Newt watching as his thumb runs over the four letters. He frowns, "These are the same letters we get in our supplies."

"So, whoever put us here must've made the Grievers." I say, glancing around.

Thomas nods. "Now, this is the first real clue, the first anything, that you guys have found in over three years. Right Minho?"

I look at Minho and he looks at me. I think about all those times we thought we found something in the Maze; all those times we thought we were getting out, but in reality we weren't even close to escape. But now, we might actually have a chance. This could be our way out.

"Right." Minho mutters, listening to what Thomas has to say.

"Newt, we have to go back out there. Who knows where this might lead us." Thomas reasons.

It's quiet as Newt and everyone else thinks, trying to figure out what to with what Thomas has given us.

"You see what he's doing right?" Gally asks. "First he breaks our rules, and then he tries to convince us to abandon them completely."  
He looks around at everyone.  
"The rules are the only thing that has held us together. Why now are we going to question them? If Alby was here, he'd agree with me."   
After letting that sink in for a second, Gally points at Thomas. "This shank needs to be punished."

I watch Newt as he hands the objects back to Minho, his eyes staying on Thomas. "Your right. Thomas broke the rules."

"Thank you." Gally nods.

"One night in the pit and no food." Newt finishes.

"Oh come on, Newt! One night in the pit? You think that'll stop him from going into the Maze?" Gally argues.

"No." Newt shrugs. "And we can't just have non-runners running into the Maze whenever they feel like it."

I raise my brow, crossing my arms as Newt goes on.

"So let's just make this official. Starting from tomorrow, your a Runner." Newt announces.

Suddenly smirking, I glance at Minho as he nods his head.

"Wow..." Gally mutters, shaking his head. 

He begins to walk out when Frypan reaches for him. "Gally-"

"Nah, Fry." Gally huffs, shoving Frypans hand away from him before storming out of the room, Fry chasing after him.

Most of the others begin to leave, except for Newt, Minho, Thomas, and me. Minho waits for Thomas as he says thanks to Newt, walking out with Minho after, leaving me and Newt alone.

Newt frowns, turning away. I tilt my head, following him as he takes a seat. "Newt, what's up?"

He sighs, "Everything is just stressful, and Gally being a bloody shank about me making Thomas a Runner isn't helping."

"Yeah well, Gally better get used to it because that's the way it is now. He wants to preach about rules, but won't even listen to who's in command." I say, sitting beside Newt.

"I'm only temporarily in command, until Alby's back."

"I know, but your in command now, so Gally has to listen to you."

Suddenly, the boys outside begin to shout, startling both me and Newt.

"What is it this time?" Newt sighs, rolling his eyes as we both run out.

Across the Glade, at the tower, there's a group of the Gladers standing at the bottom, each with something to cover themselves with as rocks fly down from the top of the building.

Chuck runs up to us, catching his breath before explaining. "It's the girl, she woke up and ran here, climbed the tower and now she won't let anyone come up. She just keeps throwing rocks, it's really funny."

We run to the bottom and look up. Rocks are constantly raining down on us, hitting some of the Gladers.

"Hey, throw one more of those things-" Gally stops mid sentence as he gets hit in the head with a rock.

"Go away!" the girl shouts.

I laugh from under my shelter, a large pan that Fry gave to me after he noticed I had gotten there, as the boys continue to get hit with rocks.

I glance to my right at Newt hiding under a piece of wood with Winston. "I don't think she likes us very much." he laughs.

Giggling, I shake my head, just as a rock hits the pan I'm under, causing it to make a loud noise and vibrate.

"What do you want from me?" she asks, still throwing rocks over the edge.

Thomas runs up beside me, trying to take shelter under the pan, but there's not enough room.  
"We just want to talk." he shouts up.

More rocks fly down. "I'm warning you!" 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." I furrow my brows as she begins to throw multiple rocks at once.  
How many rocks did we leave up there?

"Hey, it's Thomas! It's Thomas!" Thomas shouts.

The girl immediately stops throwing rocks over the edge. It's quiet for a moment as she pokes her head over the edge of the wooden platform.

"I'm gonna come up okay?" he asks.

I stare up at the now silent girl before she moves out of our sight.

"Okay." Thomas mumbles. "Just me."

He starts climbing up the tower, calling out to the girl a couple times before he finally reaches the top.

I put the pan that I used for protection from the rocks on the ground and stand at the base of the tower with Minho, Frypan, Newt, and Gally.

Gally huffs, crossing his arms. "I can't believe what's going on. Those two up there," he points to the top of the tower, "are bringing us nothing but disaster. Thomas breaks our rules, then the girl comes up passed out with that note."

"Maybe this isn't a bad change Gally." I say gently, not wanting to rile him up anymore than he already is. "Maybe we'll finally get out of here."

He rolls his eyes, looking back up to the top of the tower. "What's going on up there?" he calls out with his hands on his hips.

Thomas looks down at us over the wooden railing.

"Is she coming down?" Newt asks.

"Um," he looks back at the girl before turning to us again. "Just give us a second, okay?" he replies before sitting back down out of our sight.

Gally huffs for the thousandth time today and I frown. She's the only one that could give us some kind of answers and she won't even come down.

"All right," Newt sighs, clapping his hands. "Come on."

Fry and I follow behind him with Gally trailing slowly behind us, muttering about how annoying this is.

"Is this what all girls are like?" Fry asks me, his face scrunched up in confusion.

I shrug my shoulders. The only girl I've known is myself and thank god I haven't done something like this before. "I don't know but it'll be nice having another girl in the Glade."

"Mmm, I don't know y/n," Minho hums beside me, resting his arm on my shoulder. "you do get pretty annoying sometimes."

"Oh shut it shank." I say, hitting him in the stomach. "If anything, your the annoying one. Ask anyone else and they'll agree with me."

Minho glances at Fry to my right. He thinks before nodding, agreeing with me.

"I also agree with y/n." Newt added over his shoulder, a couple feet in front of us.

Minho acts shocked, placing his hand over his heart. 

"Sorry, Minho." I laugh, patting his perfectly done hair. "Your not that bad though."

"Thanks." he frowns. "Anyways, I'll be napping in my hammock if anyone needs me."

"Have fun." I tell him as he jogs away. If he's not running or mapping, he's eating or sleeping.

Gally splits off from our little group soon after Minho does, leaving just me, Newt, and Fry.   
We figure that Thomas and the girl will most likely talk for awhile before they come down, so we sit down at a table and talk. 

After about twenty minutes, Thomas and the black haired girl come rushing to us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you’re all doing well! make sure to leave kudos :)


	11. Chapter Eleven: A Terrible Night

I stand on the side of Alby's bed, watching the sick boy as he pants heavily, tugging against his restraints. Theres small, dark veins reaching all around his body.

"Thomas, we don't even know what this stuff is." Newt says holding a syringe filled with blue liquid that came up with the girl, who told us her name is Teresa.   
"We don't know who sent it, or why it came up here with you." He motions to Teresa. "For all we know this stuff will kill him."

Thomas furrows his brows, frowning. "He's already dying Newt. Look at him. I don't think this could possibly make it any worse."

Newt looks at Alby then glances at me with an eyebrow raised, worry etched on his face. "What do you think?"

I sigh, crossing my arms and glancing from Newt to Alby. He doesn't look good, and he's only getting worse. We all know nobody has recovered from this disease, so why not take a chance to see if this'll help him. "Thomas is right. Alby's just going to get worse over time, I think we should do it."

Newt nods slightly. "All right." he turns to Thomas, handing him the syringe. "Do it."

Thomas takes the syringe and quickly gets by Alby's side, the rest of us moving closer to the bed to see what happens.  
He leans over Alby, holding the needle just above his chest.

"Okay." he breathes, nodding at us.

Thomas turns back to Alby and suddenly the sick boy grabs Thomas by the shirt, aggressively pulling him down. "You shouldn't be here! You shouldn't be here!" Alby repeats.

My eyes widen as I quickly rush in to help Thomas, grabbing ahold of one of Alby's arms, yanking it away from Thomas and holding it down. Jeff runs in and helps me keep Alby's left hand down and out of the way, his increased strength making it very difficult for us to hold him down.

"Someone get the syringe already!" I shout.

Teresa quickly pushes beside me and Jeff and plunges the syringe into Alby's chest, causing him to calm down immediately.

We all pant heavily, releasing our grips on Alby and staring down at him in shock. Just seconds ago he was going insane and now he's calm again.

"Well that worked." Jeff pants.

"Okay, from now on, someone stays and watches him around the clock." Newt orders, still catching his breath.

Suddenly, Gally walks in, getting everyone's attention. "Sundown Greenie. Let's go."

Teresa worriedly looks at Thomas, who looks at me. I motion for Thomas to follow me, going with Gally outside.

We walk in silence for a couple minutes, before Thomas looks at Gally. "What is your problem with me Gally?" he asks.

"Everything started going wrong the second you showed up." Gally answers honestly. "First Ben, then Alby, and now the girl. We all saw that she recognized you, and I'm betting you know who she is."

We stop as we reach the pit. Thomas glances at me as Gally goes to open the door to one of the cells. I give him an apologetic look before he turns and jumps down into the cell.

After Gally locks the cell he turns and storms off. "Sorry Thomas." I sigh. "Chuck will bring you some food later, don't want you running on an empty stomach tomorrow."

He chuckles. "Thanks y/n."

I smile before turning and chasing after Gally.  
"Gally!" I call out to the tall boy ahead of me, causing him to stop.

I catch up to him and we slowly begin walking again, the light from the torch Gally's carrying lighting up the area around us.

I look up at him. "Gally, you know we can't stay here forever. What Thomas is doing is good for us, trust me."

"No." he says sternly. "What he's doing is ruining our Glade, y/n. Can't you see? I thought you were close with Alby and Ben? Don't you care what's happened to them ever since Thomas came up?"

"Of course I care, but this is how things are now, they're changing... You're changing." I frown. "I thought you wanted out of here just as much as the rest of us, and now we might actually have that chance, but you don't want to take it."

"Everything was fine before Thomas came up and started changing everything!" Gally argues. 

"This is good change! We might get to go home!"

He scowls at me. "I thought this was our home." he mutters before turning and walking away, leaving me standing alone and confused in the middle of the Glade.

I huff, muttering to myself as I go and find Chuck.

•••

I wake up bright and early, getting ready and changing the bandage on my arm. The wound still hurts a bit and it will occasionally reopen if I stretch it too much but other than that, it's not bad.

I quietly wake Minho up so we can pack our bags, heading to the pit afterwards so we can get Thomas.

"Ready for today Thomas?" I ask, kneeling down in front of the cell door.

"Are you sure you don't wanna just sit this one out?" Minho teases, kneeling next to me.

Thomas chuckles. "C'mon guys, just get me out of here already."

We let Thomas out and throw him his pack, giving him the smaller one so he doesn't have to carry as much on his first actual run.

We stop in front of the doors as they open. I check my bag one last time to make sure I have everything: water, my machete, and some small bandages just incase. I sling the pack over my shoulders and buckle the straps across my chest in the front.

Minho glances at Thomas than me, smirking.  
"Let's go!" he says before taking off.

I smirk at Thomas before quickly following after Minho, leaving Thomas standing behind me.

We sprint nonstop, checking over our shoulder to make sure Thomas is keeping up a good pace. It's difficult running such a long distance at first, over time it gets easier, but Thomas is doing surprisingly well.

After about an hour we make it to the outer sections.  
We jog past section four, five, and six, slowing to catch our breath once we reach section seven. Each section has a giant red number painted on the walls, which helps us follow the pattern and figure out which section will be open for the day. The sequence goes through each section, opening one a day for eight days, before repeating.

"That's strange." Minho mumbles as we walk through section seven.

"What is?" Thomas asks.

"Section seven isn't supposed to be open for another week."

We continue walking until we reach the Blades, tall, thin pieces of metal lined up in rows that close shut at certain times.

Thomas looks up at the towering blades. "What the hell is this place?"

"We call them Blades." I tell him over my shoulder as I walk beside Minho.

As we jog through the Blades we stop in front of a bloodied and torn shirt. Minho crouches down a lifts it up so Thomas and I can see.

"That must be Ben's." I mutter.

Minho nods before dropping the cloth and standing up. "A Griever must've pulled him down here."

I frown, staring at the shirt before a buzzing sound goes off around us. We all exchange puzzled glances with each other, not knowing where the noise is coming from.  
Suddenly, Thomas grabs Minho and spins him around.

"Whoa, Thomas!" Minho says as Thomas takes the key that was in the Griever's body out of Minho's pack.

The key continues to make buzzing and beeping sounds as Thomas turns around in each direction with it. The beeping getting quieter one way, but louder the opposite way.

Thomas looks ahead then turns back to us. "I think it's showing us where to go."

We make our way through the Blades, turning and changing our direction whenever the beeping quiets down. We finally reach a long stretch of pathway that has a very steep drop on both sides, something Minho and I have never found before.

"Guys, have you seen this place before." Thomas questions ahead of us.

"No." I answer as I follow behind him, my voice echoing.   
I look all around us, making sure to stay away from the cliffs on both sides.

"This place has never been open before." Minho mutters.

We soon reach the end of the pathway and sigh, there's nowhere else to go.

"It's just another dead end." Minho sighs, shaking his head.

I lean against the wall, rubbing my face before crossing my arms. "Ugh, and just when we thought we had a way out-"

Loud grumbling and clicking noises cut me off. Thomas looks down at the key in his hands and I notice the small light and letter that we're red before, are now green. As the grumbling and clicking continues, the wall that I'm leaning against begins to move up.

I quickly push myself away from the wall and turn around, watching as two other stone walls move up and a circular door opens up at the end.

I nervously glance and Minho and Thomas. "Uh, you guys sure about this?"

"Nope." Thomas breaths before walking forwards.

"That's inspiring." Minho chuckles, following after Thomas.

I sigh, catching up to Thomas and Minho.   
The opened door ahead of us is pitch black and smells horrible, making me not want to know what's inside.

Minho glides his hand along the edge of the door, his fingers getting covered in slime. "Grievers." he states, shaking his hand off and answering my question, even if I didn't want to know.

A red light suddenly starts ticking from the darkness. It quickly scans us before a loud, low note blares around us.

"We gotta get out of here." Minho says, grabbing my arm and pulling me behind him. Minho turns to Thomas. "Give me the key."

Thomas tosses the key to Minho, who puts it back in his bag before we start jogging back the way we came. I look over my shoulder and the doors begin closing behind us.

"Go! Go! Go!" I shout, suddenly sprinting down the stone pathway.

We continue to sprint once we get out into the Blades, the massive pieces of metal beginning to close shut.

"C'mon we're gonna get trapped!" Minho shouts, sprinting through the Blades with us close behind.

We run through them just as they're about to close, needing to get to the middle of all of them so we can still get out. Minho and I slip through one of the closing Blades, making it safely to the middle, but Thomas doesn't make it to the other side with us. We turn and run along the Blades as they close, shouting for Thomas to hurry. On one of the last Blades Thomas slips through, running right into us.

We continue sprinting through section seven, coming to a stop as the ground in front of us rises and a large part of the Maze starts falling right on top of us.

Thomas pulls on my arm, rushing out of the way just as the metal smashes to the ground, shaking the ground under us. We rush to the opening of section seven as the ground below us starts cracking and rising behind us, more large pieces of the Maze falling down between the stone that folded up.

"Don't look back! Keep going!" Minho shouts ahead.

I pick up my pace, sprinting beside Minho as we get to the closing exit. We jump on top of the stone of the closing door, crawling through. Just as my back touches the top of the stone doorway, I slip out, landing face first on the Maze floor before to doors finally shut.

Groaning, I roll onto my back.   
"What. The hell." I pant, catching my breath as Minho and Thomas collapse beside me.

After a couple minutes, I stand up, my eyes wide. "We almost died!" I laugh.

"Then why are you laughing?" Minho asks, getting up and brushing himself off.

I put my hands on top of my head, completely shocked at what just happened. "I don't even know!"

"We have to go tell the others." Thomas says, getting up too.

Minho and I nod before we all quickly jog back to the Glade.

•••

"What the hell was going on out there?" Newt asks as we get back. A large group of the boys are waiting at the entrance for us.

"What the hell have you done now Thomas?" Gally grumbles, following along.

"We found something." Thomas tells Newt, ignoring Gally.

"It's a new passage that me and Minho haven't seen before. We think it could be a way out." I explain.

Newt looks at me, his eyes widening. "Really?"

Minho nods beside me. "Yup. The key opened a door we haven't seen. I think it's where the Grievers go during the day."

Chuck quickly catches up behind us at the mention of the Grievers. "Whoa, whoa. You're saying you guys found where the Grievers live? And you want us to go in there?"

"Their way in could be our way out, Chuck." Thomas says.

"Yeah, or there could be a dozen Grievers waiting on the other side." Gally says angrily. "Truth is, Thomas doesn't know what he's done, as usual."

Suddenly Thomas stops and turns around, causing the rest of us to turn. "Yeah, well at least I did something Gally." Thomas shoots at him, getting in his face. "What have you done other than hide behind these walls?"

Gally glares at Thomas. "Lemme tell you something Greenie. You've been here three days, all right?! I've been here three years!" he spits at Thomas, pushing three fingers in his face.

"You've been here three years, and your still here, Gally!"

My jaw drops open and I look around at everyone else's shocked expressions as Thomas continues.

"So what does that tell you?! Maybe you should start doing things differently around here."

Gally angrily shrugs, "Maybe you should just be in charge Thomas."

"Guys!" Teresa says behind the group, some people turn and acknowledge her but Thomas and Gally continue to bicker.

"Hey, it's Alby!" Teresa shouts, this time gaining everyone's attention, the bickering ceasing. "He's awake."

I turn to Newt, exchanging glances with him and Minho before quickly following behind Teresa to the med-jack hut.

"Did he say anything?" I ask as we walk inside. Alby's already sitting up on the edge of his bed, facing away from the door.

"No." Teresa answers, stopping and giving us room around Alby.

Newt and I crouch down on both sides of him and Minho stands behind him. Alby's gaze stays forward, not even turning to acknowledge us.

"Alby?" Newt whispers. "Alby, are you alright?"

Alby's lip quivers but he doesn't respond. I gently place my hand on his arm. He flinches but doesn't push my hand away so I leave it.

Thomas kneels in front of Alby, looking up at him. "Hey, Alby." he says gently. "We might've just found a way out of the Maze. We could leave this place."

Alby shakes his head, "We can't leave."

I frown, looking from Thomas and back to Alby. "What do you mean? We can get out of here Alby."

Alby shakes his head again. "I remember."

"What do you remember?" Thomas asks.

Alby turns his head to look at Thomas. "You."

Everyone's attention switching between Alby and Thomas.

"You were always their favorite, Thomas." he mutters, his arms beginning to tremble.

I look up as I hear boys shouting outside as Alby continues to talk to Thomas, asking him why he came here. Thomas gets up as the commotion outside grows louder.   
Alby whimpers, pulling his arm away from me and putting his head in his hands, breathing heavily.

I nervously glance at Alby before quickly getting up and following everyone out of the room. We jog outside and see everyone rushing around the Glade, they all look lost, like they don't know what to do.

Thomas stops Winston in his tracks. "Winston, what's going on?"

"It's the doors. They aren't closing." he quickly replies before rushing off.

I look ahead at the massive maze doors that should've closed by now, but are still wide open. There's a crowd of boys running towards the entrance with torches.

Newt, Thomas, Teresa, Minho, and I rush off towards the doors. Why aren't closing, if they stay open then the Grievers will surely come in, and that definitely wont be good.

We stop at the doors, walking past the the crowd of people to get to the front. Everyone nervously looks down the corridor, waiting for something to happen.  
Suddenly there's a loud rumbling throughout the Glade, causing me to cover my ears. We all turn around as the doors opposite of us rumble and begin to open. A second later, the same sound comes from our right, then our left as the other two Maze doors open.

I stand between Minho and Thomas, staring at the doors in shock. "They shouldn't all be opening." I mutter, lightly shaking my head.

Thomas turns towards Chuck. "Hey, Chuck. I want you to go to the Council Hall, okay. Start barricading the doors." he quickly tells him. Chuck nods.

"Winston, go with him." Newt says.

"Get the others and and go hide in the forest now!" Gally shouts.

Thomas turns to Minho and I, "I need you guys to go grab every weapon you can find. I'll meet you at Council Hall."

We nod, motioning to Newt, Fry, and others to follow us.

"Let's go to the map room, we have weapons in there." I tell Minho as we sprint away from Thomas.

Minho nods and we change our route towards the forest where the map room is.   
Suddenly, people start screaming and running away from the West doors.

"Grievers!" they shout out. Seconds after, we see giant figures swiftly moving out of the Maze, chasing after the boys.

"Everyone hurry! We'll be better off in the forest!" Minho shouts over his shoulder to our group.

As we sprint faster, I glance behind me and notice Newt slowing down because of his limp. I quickly reach out and grab his wrist before pulling him along behind me.

All of us make it to the forest, jumping over tree roots and pushing branches out of our way as we sprint away from all the screams. We get to the Map room and all rush inside, Frypan shutting the door behind us.

"Okay, everyone get as many weapons as you can carry. They're either lying around or inside a box." I order, grabbing a bundle of spears that we're propped against the wall and handing them out to everyone as they search for other weapons.

I open one of the desk drawers, smirking as I reach inside and grab my machete that I use on almost every run. The one in my pack is good but the blade is chipped and worn out, making it okay for the run we did today. My machete has a good handle that I took the time to smoothed myself, and I always make sure to keep the blade shiny, sharp, and undamaged.

I twirl my weapon around, grabbing another spear before getting ready to head back out. Newt stands beside me, holding a spear in each hand. He nervously glances around the room, anxiously biting his lip. I lean my spear against the wall and reach out, grasping his arm gently. He looks at me nervously, his brows furrowed with worry. I give him a small smile, trying to ease him and myself too.

"Okay, everyone lets go!" Minho orders, motioning for me to go ahead.

I nod, letting go of Newts arm and jogging out of the map room, the screaming from the Glade getting louder. I wait for everyone to get out before sprinting off back towards the chaos.

As we reach the open Glade I see Grievers everywhere, chasing after boys who haven't found a place to hide yet. Some boys rush past us into the forest to find a hiding spot.   
I turn around and notice our group has gotten a little smaller, hopefully it's only because some ran to hide.

Ahead of us I notice the rest of the Gladers are starting to go towards the Council Hall, but so are the Grievers.   
I see a group carrying someone along with them, instantly realizing it's Thomas's group, a Griever chasing after them.   
Suddenly, another Griever race's from our direction, dragging away one of the boys that was in the back of Thomas's group.

I grip my weapons tighter, getting ready to help the others. "C'mon guys! Let's go!" I shout, sprinting forwards with the others behind me.

Alby suddenly drops to the ground, others rushing back to help him up as the Griever approaches them. Thomas jumps in front of his group, yelling at the Griever.

The monster is about to jump at him when we throw our spears at it, making the creature shriek and back away for a moment.

"C'mon lets go!" Fry shouts at everyone, running towards the Hall.

Minho rushes to Alby's side, him and Thomas both helping him up and carrying him. The rest of my group runs behind them, the Griever chasing us after it quickly recovers from our attack.

Chuck stands at the door to the Council Hall, ushering us all inside. As I pass him, I grab onto his arm, pulling him inside with me. Thomas and Minho are the last ones inside with Alby.

"Lock down the door!" Thomas orders, putting Alby down.

Someone does as he says then everything goes quiet. The Griever outside stalks around the Hall, pushing on the building slightly. My eyes nervously follow where the Griever is, my breathing quick, matching everyone else's.

As the monster continues to make its noises, someone tightly grasps my hand, startling me for a moment. I look from my hand, to the person holding it; Newt. I grip his hand tight, returning my focus back to the Griever.

The creature jumps onto the ceiling, causing all of us to jump and back away from it as it moves before suddenly stopping.

All of a sudden, it crashes its claw through the roof, grabbing ahold of a post used as support for the roof. It snaps the post in half and the entire ceiling collapses under the Griever's weight, landing directly in front of me and the other Gladers.

I stumble backwards, Newt quickly catching me before I fall. "You alright?" he asks.

I nod my head, dusting myself off.

"Help!" someone desperately calls out from underneath the collapsed roof.  
The boy sticks his hand out, but just as Thomas and Newt reach down to grab him, the boy is suddenly yanked away. I grab both Thomas and Newt by the shoulder, pulling them away as Minho pulls me back, making sure no one else gets snatched too.

The Griever runs to the other side of the Hall, crashing its claw through the wooden wall behind us. Everyone moves out of its way, but Chuck isn't quick enough.

"Chuck!" I shout, rushing towards him just as the Griever's claw grabs him.

Thomas and I grab his arm as the Griever tries to pull him through the hole in the wall. Minho and Newt join us as we try to get Chuck out of the creatures grasp.

"Chuck, don't let go!" Thomas shouts.

"No Shit!" Chuck exclaims, gripping my arm tightly as we pull on him.

My eyes widen and I begin to tug even harder. The Griever takes out its stinger from under its metal arm, getting ready to stab Chuck with it.

However, Alby rushes towards us, screaming like crazy. He grips a wooden pole, smashing it down onto the stinger and breaking it off. Alby continues to beat the metal arm until it suddenly drops Chuck, retracting back outside.

I kneel down beside Chuck, the others crowding around him. I pick up the stinger and look it over before looking at Chuck. "Chuck, are you okay?" I ask worriedly.

He coughs, dusting himself off. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks Alby."

I grip Chucks arm, looking up at Alby, thankful that he stepped in. Suddenly, the Griever claw crashes through the wall again, grabbing ahold of Alby this time.

"Grab him!" Newt shouts as Thomas jumps up and grasps Alby.

I shove the stinger into Chucks arms, standing up with the others and rushing in to help Thomas.

Alby looks down at Thomas. "Thomas, get them out." he grunts before getting ripped out out of Thomas's grasp, getting taken away from us.

"Alby!" we all shout, stopping in our tracks. He's gone, they took him and I couldn't even help him.

"Thomas, no!" Teresa shouts, snapping me out of my thoughts to see Thomas running outside.

"Thomas don't!" I yell, chasing after him with the others.

We get outside and freeze, looking across our destroyed Glade. All the Grievers are gone, and almost every building is on fire or was trampled down by the Grievers.

"Who's that over there?" someone whispers.

I turn to where they're pointing and see three figures marching towards us. As they approach us I see it's Gally and two of his builders, Gally looking completely pissed off.

"Gally..." Thomas mutters before being punched in the jaw by the muscular boy.

"Whoa, Gally!" I exclaim, stepping in front of him as Fry, Minho, and Winston hold him back.

"This is all on you Thomas! Look what you've done!" Gally angrily shouts, shoving at the boys holding him back.

"Back up Gally! This isn't Thomas's fault!" Minho says, defending Thomas.

Gally glances around at everyone. "You all heard what Alby said! He's one of them! He's one of them, and they sent him here to destroy everything, and now he has!" he spits, continuing to fight against Minho, Fry, and Winston.

"Thomas didn't do this Gally!" I shout, keeping my hands in front of Gally so he doesn't rush after Thomas. "You need to calm down, now!"

"Calm down?!" he exclaims, getting angrier. "How can I calm down when he's destroyed everything, and none of you care! He's got all of you believing his lies!"  
He pushes against Fry, shoving him away and almost getting away.

"Hold him back!" Minho says as I push against his shoulders, holding him back until Fry gets back and grabs him again.

"Let go of me! I'm right!" Gally shouts. "He's ruining everything we have!"

Thomas suddenly gasps behind us, causing me to turn around and see him hunched over in pain before collapsing to the ground. Gally immediately stops fighting against us while we rush over to help the brunette boy.

"Thomas!" Teresa and Chuck shout worriedly.

I kneel beside Thomas, looking down and seeing the stinger from the Griever stabbed into Thomas's right thigh.

"Chuck, go get the other syringe!" Teresa orders, beginning to mutter reassuring words as Thomas slowly falls unconscious.

I furrow my brows, Why the hell would he do that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter until we're caught up to where I'm currently at in the story.   
> 2020 is really starting to look like the Maze Runner not gonna lie.  
> I hope you're enjoying it so far :) stay safe and make sure to leave kudos, its very encouraging! Thank you!


	12. Chapter Twelve: An Emotional Escape

Once Chuck had gotten back with the serum, we injected Thomas's unconscious body with it. It was silent as everyone processed everything that's happening; wondering why Thomas chose to sting himself.

"I told all of you that Thomas was bad news! Can't you see that he's the reason that this has all happened!" Gally angrily shouts, the rest of the Gladers gathering around us.

I stand up, turning to Gally. "Thomas has nothing to do with what has happened. You're just scared of change."

"He's done in three days, what we couldn't do in three years." Minho states next to me, crossing his arms.

Newt nods, also standing beside me to defend Thomas. "And he's shown that he isn't against us. He risked his life by running into the Maze to save Alby and Minho."

"Alby's gone, and it's Thomas's fault!" Gally shouts.   
He turns to the rest of the group, everyone unsure of who to side with; us or Gally.

I sadly look down. "Alby may be gone," I start glancing around. "but I know that he wouldn't want us to go against Thomas. He'd want us to get the hell out of here, and that's exactly what we'll do if we let Thomas guide us."

"Before Thomas came up everything was fine, but now everything we've worked hard for has been destroyed! It's all Thomas's fault, and Alby would agree!" Gally shouts.

I shake my head, glancing around and noticing most of the boys are nodding their heads, agreeing with Gally.   
"He's right."  
"We we're fine before he came up."  
"It all started going wrong once he showed up."  
They all mutter to each other.

Gally quiets everyone down by holding his hands up. "I know I already have people who are on my side. So, the rest of you are either also with me, or you get banished at sundown tomorrow with Thomas."

"Gally! You can't do that!" I shout. "Your not in charge, Newt is!"

Gally glares at me, something he's never done until recently. "Everyone is scared, y/n. Newt hasn't taken command so someone has to. I guess that means I will."

He looks to his men; the builders that he's in charge of. "Put him in the pit. Whoever tries to stop you, throw them in too."

His men nod before walking towards us as we stand in front of Thomas's unconscious body, unmoving. They stop and glare at us, waiting for us to get out of their way. I glance at Newt and Minho before glaring at the four boys in front of us. I huff, stepping aside and turning away from them.

As they pick up Thomas off the ground Teresa glares at them before getting up and standing with my small group; Me, Newt, Minho, Fry, and Chuck. We watch them walk off, dragging Thomas with them.

I turn to Gally, giving him a dirty look. "You'll regret this." I mutter before turning away with the others, walking back to our hammocks.

Halfway there, Teresa breaks off from our group, going to stay with Thomas until we get there tomorrow.

Everyone goes to lay down, muttering quiet good nights before finally going to sleep; except me. I silently sit up in my hammock, staring out at the Glade in front of me. The fire from the buildings are already put out, leaving thick clouds of smoke around us. The pungent smell of smoke lingering throughout the Glade.

I sigh heavily, looking across the Glade one more time before finally closing my eyes for the night.

•••

When I wake up the smell of smoke isn't as strong as last night, but it's still there. I look around and notice a couple other boys are up, but everyone else is still sleeping in their hammocks or even on the ground.

I stand up, stretching my tired arms then thoroughly brush my hair out with my fingers. I quickly change into my tan colored long sleeved shirt, rolling up the sleeves to my elbows. I leave on my black pants and put on my shoes, tying the laces, then going to wake the others up.

I look down at Minho as he sleeps, one arm thrown over the side of the hammock, the other over his face. "Minho, get up shank." I mutter, shoving his face then moving to Newts hammock and doing the same.

Both boys groggily sit up, rubbing their eyes or stretching before glaring at me as they get up. I shrug, heading off to the kitchen, the boys behind me.

Surprisingly, the kitchen is still intact and most of the tables to eat at are too. I see Fry behind the counter, already cooking, most likely to get his mind off of everything happening.

"Hey, Fry." I wave, standing opposite of him. "What're you making?"

"It's pork stew. Winston had sliced up a pig the other day, and I don't want the meat going bad." He answers, cutting up a carrot before sliding it into his pot. "And something warm normally makes people calmer, and gets them feeling better."

I nod, leaning against the counter. Every time someone's hurt or sick, Frypan always provides his stew. I'd say it's one of the best things he can make.

"Could I get three bowls?" I ask him as he finishes mixing.

He simply nods, grabbing three bowls, filling them halfway up then dropping a spoon in each. I thank him, balancing the bowls in my hands and walking to the table, sitting across Newt and Minho.

We eat in silence, more boys waking up and getting food, everyone either talking in quiet voices or not at all.

Chuck sits down beside me, immediately digging into his food, and soon enough he's finished before the rest of us.

"We're gonna go talk with Thomas after breakfast, right?" he asks, a little too loud.

I put my finger to my lips, nodding before taking another bite of stew.

"Yeah, but keep it down, Chuck." Newt whispers. "Don't want anyone to tell Gally, else he'll banish us with Thomas."

Chuck quickly nods, zipping his lips closed with his fingers and pretending to throw away the key.

After we finish eating we quietly drift away from the others, hoping nobody that'll snitch will see us heading to Thomas.

When we reach the pit Minho, Newt, and I crouch down in front, Chuck leans against my back, peering down into the cell. Teresa's sitting on her knees with Thomas's head in her lap.

"Has he woken up?" Newt asks Teresa.

"No, he's just been stirring around." she replies, looking down at him.

Suddenly, Thomas begins to groan, opening his eyes to see Teresa leaning over him.

"Hey." she smiles. "Are you okay?"

He stares at her for a moment before sitting up, looking at us.

I raise a brow as we make eye contact. "Why'd you do that last night?"

"Yeah, what the hell were you thinking?" Chuck scolds him.

He scrunches his brows, looking at us. "What happened?"

"Gally's taken control. He said we had a choice. Either join him, or get banished at sundown with you." Newt says, his voice low.

Thomas groans, sitting up and turning around to face us completely. "And the others all agreed to that?"

Teresa sighs. "Gally has everyone convinced that you're the reason everything has happened."

Nodding slightly, Thomas rubs his hands against his thighs. "Well, he's been right so far."

I tilt my head, frowning. How could he have done all this?

"What are you talking about?" Minho asks.

"This place isn't what we thought it was." Thomas starts. "It's not a prison; it's a test. Everything started when we were kids. They'd give us these challenges. They were experimenting on us, using us as guinea pigs." he explains. "Then people started disappearing. Every month, one after the other; like clockwork."

"They we're sending them up into the Maze?" I question, frowning.

"Yeah, but not all of us."

"What do you mean?" Newt asks.

Thomas looks up at us, his expression pained. "Guys, I'm one of them."

We all look at him, even more confused than we already were.

"The people who put you here, I worked with them." he mutters, his voice croaky. "I-I watched you guys for years. The entire time you've been here, I-I was on the other side of it. And so we're you." He looks to Teresa, an anguished expression painted on his face. "Teresa, we did this to them."

Teresa shakes her head in disbelief, beginning to cry. "No. That can't be true."

"It is. I saw it." Thomas confirms as I look down at my hands.

All these years, he's been on the other side of it all. Watching us as we struggle, break down, and give up. We had a feeling we were being watched, but this just confirms it, making the pain much worse.   
They watched as everything happened, and they didn't do a thing about it; Thomas and Teresa didn't do anything.

But, it's all different now. For some reason they were thrown in here too, loosing their memories and needing to survive just like we had for years. They're different people now.

"Why would they send us up if we were with them?" Teresa asks, blinking back her tears.

"It doesn't matter." Thomas sighs.

"He's right." Newt speaks up. We all turn to him as he continues, shaking his head. "It doesn't matter. Any of it. 'Cause the people we were before the maze, they don't even exist anymore... These creators took care of that." he looks down at Thomas. "But what does matter is who we are now and what we do right now. You went into the Maze, and you found a way out."

Thomas shakes his head. "Yeah, but if I hadn't, Alby would still be alive."

Newt nods. "Maybe." he mutters, his voice getting softer. "But I know that if he were here, he would be telling you the exact same thing. Pick your ass up and finish what you started. 'Cause if we do nothing, then that means Alby died for nothing and I can't have that." he shakes his head.

I look to Thomas. "Okay," he agrees. "but we got to get through Gally first."

I look down, thinking as everyone else does the same. What would get us past Gally? Most things would work, but we need something that'll give us our time to get out with whoever wants to follow.   
Suddenly, something pops up.

I gasp, snapping my head back up, startling everyone. "I have an idea." I smirk.

•••

Minho, Newt, and I walk up to the opened Maze doors as Gally's men bring Thomas and Teresa to the front of the opening. Stopping in front of two wooden posts that were put in the ground in front of the doors earlier.

Gally finishes crossing Alby's name off the stone wall before standing in front of everyone, all the boys gathered around the doors.

"This is such a waste." Gally sighs as two of his men drop Thomas on the ground, the other holding Teresa's arms behind her back.

"Gally." Winston speaks up from the front of the crowd. Gally turns to face him, raising an eyebrow. Winston shakes his head. "This doesn't feel right, man."

Jeff nods beside Winston. "Gally, what if Thomas is right? What if he can get us home."

"We are home." Gally assures. "I don't want to cross anymore names off that wall." he motions to where all our names are carved, many crossed out over the years.

"Do you really think banishing us is going to solve anything?" Teresa asks, glaring at Gally.

"No." Gally answers simply. "This isn't a banishing. It's an offering."

I watch silently as the boy holding Teresa begins to tie her to the post. I'm not really that worried about the sudden change, even if we were wrong about this being a banishing, we can still easily go through with the plan.

"Gally, what are you doing?" Teresa questions, struggling against the boy tying her. But he's too strong, he quickly ties her arms above her head.

"Do you really think I'm going to let Thomas back into the Maze after everything he's done?!" Gally exclaims. "Look around you! Look what he's done to our Glade!"

As everyone turns to look, I glance at Newt, nodding slightly. He glances at Minho and gives him his signal as Gally continues his rant.   
Just on time, I see Chuck in the distance carrying all of our supplies. He gets closer, waiting for the next part of our plan before he runs in.

"Are you listening to him? Why are you all just standing there?" Teresa asks the crowd. "He's crazy."

"Shut up!" Gally growls, glaring at her before turning to the boys that carried Thomas. "Tie him up!"

The boys hesitate, causing Gally to get angrier. "Did you two hear me?! I said tie him up!" he orders.

The boys crouch down and begin to lift Thomas's limp body up.

Suddenly, Thomas elbows the boy to his left in the ribs, keeping him down. He quickly gets up and knocks the other boy down, hitting him over the head with the non sharp end of a spear he took from the first boy.

Then, everything happens at once.

Newt rushes in as someone is about to attack Thomas from behind, hitting him in the back of the head with the handle of his machete and knocking him out.

Another boy attempts to get Thomas, but I quickly take my machete out. Stepping in front of the boy, I point the end of the blade to his neck and glare at him, stopping him in his tracks.

Teresa kicks someone in the groin before Frypan cuts the rope tying her hands and gives her a weapon.

Minho rushes up behind Gally, pointing the blade of his machete at the boy.

Newt, Minho, and I slowly join the other three in front of the doors, still pointing our weapons at whoever we stopped. Chuck rushes up to us, standing at the back of our group.

Gally throws his hands up. "You're just full of surprises aren't you, Thomas."

"You don't have to come with us, but we are leaving." Thomas says. "Anyone else who wants to come with us, now's your chance."

As some boys step closer Gally lifts his hand and stops them. "Don't listen to him. He's trying to scare you."

Thomas shakes his head. "No I'm not trying to scare you. You're already scared."   
He looks around at everyone. "Alright, I'm scared. But I'd rather risk my life out there than spending the rest of it in here."

I look around as the boys glance at each other, deciding what to do.

"We don't belong here." Thomas continues. "This place isn't our home. We were put here. We were trapped here. At least out there we have a choice. We can make it out of here." he nods. "I know that."

The first to step forward is Winston, mumbling an apology to Gally as he passes him. He's followed by Jeff and a couple other boys.

Gally examines what's left of his group, nodding at the size, which is a little larger than our group.

"Gally, we're done here." I reason, stepping forward. "We've been trapped for too long, it's time we get out. Please, just come with us. We can all get out of here together."

Gally silently stares at us, momentarily making me think he'd come with us.

"Good luck against the Grievers." he sighs.

I nod, taking his answer. I don't want to leave him behind, we've been really close until he started blaming Thomas for everything. But we have to, I don't want to spend my whole life stuck in here, and if he wants that, then so be it.

Thomas nudges my shoulder, motioning for me to go. I take one last look at Gally before following with the group.

•••

After about an hour and a half of running through the Maze, needing to go slower for the people who can't run as fast, we make it to the end of section seven; our way out. 

We line up against the stone wall, watching as Thomas peeks around the corner before turning back to us, frowning.

"Is there a Griever?" Chuck nervously pants beside him.

Thomas nods. "Yeah."

"Well, I guess we were expecting that." I say, getting ready and putting my hair into a quick ponytail.

"Take this, Chuck." Minho says, handing the key to Chuck. "Stay behind us."

Chuck hesitantly takes the key, anxiously turning it over in his hand.

"It's okay. Just stick with me." Teresa tells him, also putting her hair back.

"Okay, once we're through, it'll active and the door will open." Thomas explains. "We stay close, and we stay together. We get through this. We get out now... Or we die trying."

I glance sideways, nodding to Newt and Minho.

Thomas looks at the crowd as we all prepare ourselves. "Ready?" he asks, hitting his spear on the ground.

I nod, grabbing my machete from my pack and gripping my spear tighter. Staring ahead with determination to get out of here. Something about Thomas's little speech must've gotten to me because I feel even more driven to finally finish this. I'm ready for anything around that corner.

"All right. Let's go!" Thomas exclaims, turning around the corner and charging down the stone pathway.

Everyone shouts out as we follow behind Thomas, raising our weapons as we approach the Griever. The monster turns and charges back at us, getting its stinger ready.  
We crash into the Griever and stab up at it with our spears, knocking it towards one of the edges. The Griever quickly recovers but we're already pushing it backwards.

"Get it off the edge!" I shout, pushing at its slimy body with the point of my weapon.

The Griever shrieks before swiping its metal tail at us. We all duck down, everyone managing to get out of its way. It immediately goes for another strike with its claw.

"Look out!" Minho shouts, but his warning is too late.

The Grievers claw grabs ahold of a Glader, picking him up and throwing him over the edge of the cliff, into the deep, dark abyss below.

As I dodge one of the Grievers legs, I see Chuck and Teresa still by us. "You guys need to go!" I shout.

They nod before their eyes widen at something behind me. I turn around and see another leg heading straight for me. Someone grabs my arm, yanking me out of the way as the leg hits the ground, breaking the stone. I turn to see who grabbed me; Newt.

"Thanks." I breath, smiling at him before turning back to Teresa.

She uses her machete and swipes at the Grievers leg, throwing it off balance, but also causing the monsters leg to hit Chucks hand; the one with the key in it.

The key flys out of his hand, hitting the ground then sliding towards the edge.

"The key!" Chuck cries, rushing after it as it almost falls off the edge.

"Chuck!" I shout, watching as Teresa chases after him before I'm forced to focus back on the fight.

We continue to push and stab at the Griever, getting it closer and closer to the edge before finally shoving the monster off. We cheer, watching it fall into the darkness.

I look back to Chuck and Teresa as she pulls Chuck up from leaning over the ledge, the key gripped in his hand. Just as they get up and move away, two more Grievers climb out of the abyss from both sides.

"You've got to be shucking kidding me." I groan.

We rush at the Grievers, keeping them back as Teresa and Chuck get to the door.

"Hold them back!" Minho orders, stabbing one in its chest.

The second Griever moves closer to me, snapping its sharp teeth. Before it can bite any of us, I thrust my spear towards it, stabbing the side of the monsters face. The Griever reels back, letting out a loud shriek before attacking again, this time grabbing ahold of a boys ankle and dragging him away as he screams.

Teresa and Chuck run through to the last door as the Grievers slowly back us up into the smaller corridor. One boy rushes towards the Griever, attempting to stab it, but the Griever dodges his attack and bites the boys spear before pulling him away.

As we continue to attack, more boys are taken, being grabbed by the Griever's claw and thrown through the air, most likely towards the cliff behind the Grievers.

"Thomas!" Teresa calls behind us. "There's a code! Eight numbers!"

Thomas mumbles to himself before turning to me and Minho as we stab at the Grievers. "Minho! Y/n! What's the sequence?!"

"The what?!" Minho and I shout back, unable to hear him properly over all the noise.

"The sections of the Maze, what's the sequence?!" he repeats, a little louder this time.

"Oh! Seven! One!" I begin, remembering the pattern each section is opened.   
Suddenly, a Griever lunges towards me, making me lose my train of thought as I jab my spear at it.

"Five! Two!" Minho quickly continues for me. "Six! Four!"

"Heads up!" Newt shouts.

I look up as a Griever falls down from above. Everyone quickly moves out of the way, and when I look back I see Minho still hasn't moved.

"Minho, move!" I warn, but it's too late. The Griever lands above him, trying to bite him as he holds it back. Minho hold his spear sideways, putting the handle in the monsters mouth and pushing up to keep it away from his face.

"Minho!" everyone worriedly shouts.

He groans in disgust. "Get off of me!"

Suddenly, Jeff runs forward, shouting as he stabs the Griever above Minho in the head, saving him. The Griever shrieks, getting off of Minho, but dragging Jeff away to his death.

"Jeff!" Winston shouts, reaching for his friend, but immediately gets pulled back by Frypan.

Jeff's screams are soon drowned out as three Grievers push through the corridor, forcing us to move back into the circular door at the end.

"What's the sequence? Come on!" Chuck shouts.

I think back to where Minho left off. "Six, four, eight! Three! That's it."

"Did you get it?" Minho questions as he stabs at the Grievers.

Suddenly, the Maze groans before the farthest stone doorway begins to close, then the second one, then the third, squishing the Grievers that get stuck underneath the stone.  
The last Griever shrieks, running at us. I panic as it gets closer, almost reaching us. Thomas chucks his spear at the Griever, hitting it and causing it to stagger backwards before the final stone door falls and smashes the monster.

We freeze, looking around at each other, unsure of what will happen now.  
Suddenly, the circular door in front of us closes, leaving us in the darkness. Everyone stays silent as a couple minutes pass, the only noises are our heavy breathing. Then, something rumbles before a door on the opposite side of the room opens slightly, letting in some light.

I exchange nervous glances with the others before hesitantly stepping towards the door and pushing it all the way open. I peek my head out and see a long, barely lit stone hallway to my left, peering around the door I see another long, dark stone hallway.

I walk out of the dark room and into the hallway, the others following behind me. I look around and count how many we have left; eleven counting me, which isn't what I hoped we'd have.

We shut the door and suddenly, the lights to our left start turning on, moving down the hallway until the whole corridor is dimly lit.

I look down both hallways. Which one are we supposed to go down, they both look exactly the same. Do they circle around and meet up at where we need to be, or does one just lead us the wrong way. No that would be ridiculous, they must circle around.

"How the shuck are we supposed to know which way to go?" Minho frowns.

"How about we just go right?" I say, picking one way.

"Good that." Newt nods.

We all silently walk down the right hallway, listening to the lights buzzing and water flowing through the pipes on both sides of us.

After about thirty minutes, we stop as we finally reach a metal door with a green light beside it. Above the door is a sign that reads EXIT in glowing green letters. I raise an eyebrow at the irony of having to fight for our lives, then getting out and finding a simple exit sign.

"Seriously?" Fry asks, glancing around at us.

Thomas steps forward and hesitantly opens the door. My mouth falls open slightly, shocked at what I see. There's dead bodies lying around in lab coats, blood on the floor or splattered against the wall, and an alarm continuously whooping.

We walk through the small room, staying away from the dead bodies on the ground. I look through a window to my right and see two people on metal tables, a bloodied sheet draped over their dead bodies. I glance at Minho before Newt pushes us forward from behind.

"What happened here?" Winston nervously asks, watching Minho slide a gun away from a man who isn't dressed in a lab coat.

We continue walking until we reach a larger room, filled with countless glasslike computers and monitors, almost all of them are cracked and shooting off sparks or broken completely. Everyone spreads out to investigate the room, stepping past the bodies lying on the ground. I follow Newt and Frypan to a group of monitors, each showing images of the Glade.

I lean against the counter, frowning as I look at the Glade and the other boys we left behind. Just below the live video of our Glade is a scan of someone's brain, most likely one of ours.

Newt looks at each screen. "So they were watching us. This whole time." he affirms, nodding with a pained expression. I place my hand on his arm, trying my best to comfort him. But it's hard when you now know that people have watched you try to take your life and they didn't do a thing about it.

He gives me a small smile before returning his attention to the screens. I walk off, letting him have space, stopping at one of the glasslike computers. The screens are see through like glass, but the images of our faces and our information are still visible. I stare at my image, a picture of someone I don't even know anymore. I lean down to read the notes and information they have for me. But before I can start, a woman's voice interrupts me.

"Hello. My name is Dr. Ava Paige." the lady starts, a video of her appearing on a large screen to my right.

"I'm director of operations of the World Catastrophe Killzone Department. If your watching this, that means you've successfully completed the Maze trials." I walk towards the video, stopping beside Newt. The lady is an older woman, she has her blonde hair pulled up into a tight bun, bright red lipstick on, and she's wearing all white. All the light colors making her bright red lips stand out the most.

"I wish I could be there in person to congratulate you... but circumstances seem to have prevented it. I'm sure by now you must all be very confused, angry, frightened. I can only assure you that everything that's happened to you, everything we've done to you, it was all for a reason." she continues as people behind her on the other side of the glass room she's in start rushing around in a panic.

"You won't remember, but the sun has scorched our world." The video of her switches to a slideshow of what's happened out in the world. "Billions of live lost to fire, famine, suffering on a global scale. The fallout was unimaginable. What came after was worse. We called it the Flare. A deadly virus that attacks the brain. It is violent, unpredictable, and incurable." she explains. I cover my mouth as a video of a crazed man covered in dark veins appears on the screen. Doctors hold him down as he thrashes around. He looks like the people from all my nightmares back in the Glade, making me fear that what the dreams had said, could really happen.

"Or so we thought. In time, a new generation emerged that could survive the virus. Suddenly, there was hope to finding a cure. But finding it wouldn't be easy. The young would have to be tested, even sacrificed, inside harsh environments, where we could study their brain activity. All in an effort to understand what makes them different... what makes you different." she sighs. "You may not realize it, but you're very important. Unfortunately, your trials have only just begun."

Suddenly, there's an explosion in the video behind the lady, gunfire goes off as people start running around or drop to the floor. But she continues, almost like she doesn't notice or hear what's happening behind her. "As you'll no doubt soon discover, not everyone agrees with our methods. Our progress is slow, people are scared. It may be too late for us... for me... but not for you. The outside world awaits."

"Remember..." she says, reaching down and grabbing a gun as the soldiers in the back begin to fire at the glass protecting her. She exhales, putting the gun to her temple. "Wicked is good."

Just as she finishes, the glass breaks behind her and her gun goes off. I jump, quickly turn away and gripping onto Newt's sleeve as he covers my face from the screen; not that I was looking anyways.

I look up as Thomas passes me, looking at something behind us. I turn and see the woman, Ava Paige, lying dead on the ground. We stare at her, too shocked to do anything else.

Suddenly, an alarm buzzes to our right and a door opens. We all look down the dark tunnel, a sliver of light visible at the end.

"Is it over?" Chuck questions, looking to Thomas then back down the corridor.

"She said we were important." Newt states, recalling what the lady had said about us. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"Where do we go?" I question, everyone looking to Thomas.

"I don't know." he mutters. "But let's get out of here."

I nod, following behind Thomas as we walk forward. Only to be stopped by a familiar voice.

"No." they say shakily.

I turn around, shocked and confused to see Gally standing about ten feet away from me. His whole body's shaking as he holds a gun in one hand, and a key from a Griever in the other. How the shuck did he get a Griever key all on his own in the time it took us to get out of here?

"Gally?" Thomas says, stepping forward before Teresa grabs his shoulder, stopping him.

"Don't. He's been stung."

Gally drops the key and shakes his head. "We can't leave."

Thomas puts his hands up and cautiously steps forward. "Gally, we did it. We can go, we're free."

"Free?" Gally asks, sobbing. "You think we'll be free out there? No." he answers, slowly raising the gun up, aiming it at Thomas. "No, there's no escape from this place."

We all back up a step, being cautious of Gally in his crazed state.

"Gally listen to me, your not thinking straight. Your not." Thomas says, his voice shaking. "We can help you. We just need you to put the gun down."

Gally grips the gun tighter. "I belong to the Maze. We all do." he cries before pulling the trigger.

I flinch as the gun goes off and Minho chucks a spear at Gally, hitting him in his upper chest. My mouth falls open as he gasps before falling to his knees. He grunts, dropping the gun then finally falling to the ground. I pat myself down, making sure the bullet didn't hit me before looking back at Gally, too distracted that I don't even notice Chuck begin to wobble beside me.

"Thomas." the curly haired boy groans, catching my attention, but his back is turned to me so I can't see what's wrong.

"Chuck." Thomas says quietly, grabbing the boy as he falls. He lays Chuck down on the ground leaning over him and grabbing his face. "Chuck? Chuck? Oh no. Oh god." he gasps.

My eyes widen as I see the blood seeping through Chuck's shirt. The gunshot went off and hit him.

Chuck groans weakly, absently looking around him.

"Shit." Thomas pants. "Chuck. Look at me. Look at me, alright? I got you buddy."

I drop to my knees beside Thomas, leaning over the younger boy. "Just hold on, Chuck." I cry.

"It's okay." Chuck groans, but Thomas isn't listening, so the dying boy grips his shoulder. "Thomas, Thomas..."

He struggles to breath as he shakily takes something out of his pocket.

Thomas shakes his head, refusing to take what's in Chucks hand. "No, Chuck. You're giving that to them yourself, remember?"

"Take it." he whispers, his breathing slowing.

"No, Chuck."

"Thank you." he cries, before letting out a long exhale then stops breathing completely.

My hand trembles as I cover my mouth, tears streaming down my cheeks. I stare down at the small boy, unable to move or speak, as he lies lifeless on the ground.

"Chuck, come on!" Thomas shouts, shaking the boy as he cries. "Please wake up."

I silently sob, tightly grabbing Newts arm as he helps me stand up. He covers his mouth as he cries, putting his other arm around me as I burry my face in his shoulder.

Thomas sobs. "We made it, come on." he rocks back and forth, still holding onto Chucks shirt.   
"Goddamn it!" he shouts, so much pain in his voice.

Newt turns and I open my eyes as a blinding light comes from the end of the tunnel. Out of the light, people start running towards us.

Thomas continues shouting as the soldiers hurriedly move us towards the light, motioning for us to move quickly. Newt grasps my arm and we run where they want us to as the strangers begin to push us along.

I wipe my eyes as I run, immediately needing to cover them as I get out into the blinding sunlight and scorching heat. After my eyes adjust I look around and see sand hills everywhere. And in the distance, just over the hills, there's tall buildings. I sprint after Minho, the sand making it harder to run, until we get to a helicopter.

The soldiers order us to get inside. We all pile in, waiting for Thomas to get in before they slam the door shut.

One of the men takes his helmet off. "You guys alright?" he asks, out of breath from that short run.

Shocked, I glance around at everyone, my heart feeling like it's about to hammer out of my chest.

"Your safe now." the man assures as the helicopter takes off.

I look out the window in shock as we fly over the Maze, the smokey Glade perfectly surrounded by towering walls and thousands of intricate corridors. The same corridors that I ran through and memorized almost every day for the past three years, trying to escape. And we finally did it, we followed Thomas and he led us out. I just can't help but think about the boys left behind, or the ones that didn't make it out alive.

I sit back down, burring my face in my hands. We're finally out, but we couldn't save everyone. Chuck should be in this helicopter with us, not stuck on a cold lab floor, not even getting to see any of this.

"Relax, kids. Everything is going to change." the man speaks over the roaring propellers.

I look up at everyone, their expression absent.

Suddenly, I feel my eyes lids grow heavy as everything that's happened catches up with me. I slowly lean my head against Newt's shoulder, closing my eyes and letting sleep take over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I update this story on my Wattpad before here, so if you would like to see future chapters a little sooner my Wattpad is @Newtslove_  
> Have a good day !


	13. Chapter Thirteen: We're Safe Now

I open my eyes as someone gently shakes me, waking me up; Newt. I looking around and see that everyone except Thomas is up, listening to one of the men that saved us from the Maze as he gives out instructions.  
"Once we land, you kids need to get out as fast as you can! We have men on the ground that will direct you where to go! Everyone got it?!" he hurriedly shouts over the helicopters loud propellers.

We all exchange nervous glances before nodding our heads, unsure of why we need to run for our lives.

I look out the window of the helicopter, noticing it's pitch black outside, meaning we must've been flying through the desert for a couple of hours. Below the descending helicopter, theres an enormous compound, hundreds of lights shining from it, lighting up the area in front of the massive building where people are waiting for us.

As soon as we land, the helicopter door is slid open and a man with his face covered with cloth and goggles begins to shout out orders, a shotgun firmly grasped in his hand. I follow his directions and quickly clamber out of the helicopter, Minho wakes Thomas up as everyone else climbs out after me.

"Come on! Follow me!" one of the men yell, motioning for us to follow him.

I rush after him, stumbling through the sand, before turning around as multiple shrieks come from behind me.

"Cranks!" one of the armed men shouts before shooting into the darkness, the others doing the same. I frown, seeing nothing, before figures suddenly start to climb over the sand dune, the moonlight behind them showing their silhouettes.  
The men around me continue to shout out orders while they shoot at the people rushing towards us out of the darkness.

Newt grabs ahold of my arm as he passes, pulling me along as the soldiers guide us to the large compound. Guards run past us, away from the building as we run towards the large doors.  
Our group stops once we're inside the compound, the doors beginning to close. Thomas slips in just before the doors finally shut, blocking out the gunfire and shouting from outside.

I look around the inside of the compound in awe, people frantically rush around the enormous building as a blaring alarm continues to go off, but nobody seems to be paying any attention to us.

Suddenly, a man sprints up to us. "Kids, we need to get you out of here. Follow me, now!" he orders, turning around.

Just as Thomas is about to question the man, someone roughly grabs my arm, moving me and my friends forward. I pull my arm out of the guys grip, moving closer to my group as we run, following the first man through a hallway before he stops and pulls open a door.  
"Get inside! Hurry, hurry, hurry!" he shouts, ushering us into the room.

The men that were grabbing us, shove us all inside before blocking the door.

"Wait! Whats going on?" Thomas shouts at the men, anger in his voice.

"It's nothing we can't handle." the leading man replies as he quickly shuts the door in our faces.

I turn around, standing frozen in shock beside Newt and the others, my mouth hanging open as I stare ahead. In front of us is a large table filled with many different kinds of foods; chicken, rice, mashed potatoes, tons of different vegetables and fruits, bread, and so much more.

Thomas continues to pound on the door, demanding to be let out and given answers, not even noticing the display of food behind him. I wordlessly tug on Thomas's sleeve, getting him to turn around and stop shouting.

We all stare at it as my stomach starts to grumble, unsure of what to do as it sits in front of us.  
This is way too good to be true. I must be dreaming, or I'm dead.

Suddenly Frypan rushes forward. "Dibs on the rice." he calls, causing the rest of us to rush forward too.

"I call the mashed potatoes!" I say as everyone else also calls dibs on random food items.

I grab a tin plate, pilling mashed potatoes on it then handing the spoon off to someone else, immediately reaching over the table to grab a piece of chicken, skipping the plate and taking a huge bite out of it.  
I quickly devour the chicken all the way to the bone, sitting down at the table as I pile rice and vegetables onto my plate. I grab a spoon and take big bites of what's on my plate, enjoying the taste and flavor that I didn't get to have for years in the Glade.

"This is way better than Frypans slop." Winston jokes, taking a bite of chicken.  
We all burst out laughing, knowing that it's true.

I reach for another piece of chicken but freeze as rice suddenly hits me in the face. I turn to Teresa, smirking as I grab a handful of rice.  
"Oh it is on girl." I challenge, chucking the rice back at her, hitting her right in the face.

Everyone continues laughing as they excitedly join in on the food fight. All kinds of food flying across the table as we have fun.

I grab two more handfuls of rice and throw one into Newt's face and the other into Minho's. They both laugh before teaming up on me, each throwing a handful of mashed potatoes at me. I gasp as both hit me right in the face, wiping parts of the mashed potatoes off my face before attacking again.

After a couple minutes of laughing and messing around, we got back to actually eating the food, until there were only scraps left lying around. Everyone finds a comfortable spot around the room to lie down, exhausted and full.

I groan, lying down on my back on one of the table benches, my hands resting on my stomach that feels like it's about to burst.

"I don't know who these guys are, but they can definitely cook." Frypan smiles, sitting on the floor and leaning against a stone pillar, somehow still eating.

I glance sideways, still lying down. "Yeah, I'm about to pop."

"Same here." Minho groans from laying on the table, raising his hand in the air before letting it drop weakly.

"Who are these people really, though?" Teresa asks, leaning against the pile of bags Newt's sitting on. "We don't know anything about them."

I turn sideways on the bench, leaning my head against my hand. "They did save us after we escaped, and they gave us plenty of food. I don't think Wicked would've done that."

Newt nods. "So we know they're no friends of Wicked."

"That's good enough for me." Minho says, sitting up. "You guys need to stop thinking about it so much. We're free. Let's enjoy it."  
He looks at all of us, nodding slightly before lying back down.

I sigh, looking at the others before lying back down. I close my eyes and rest my arm over my face. Minho's right, we shouldn't be worrying about anything anymore. We're finally safe, and free from Wicked.

•••

Twenty minutes later, the door starts beeping.  
I quickly get up off the bench, watching as the door opens and a middle aged man with grey hair turns around the corner, stopping in the doorway. He scans the room, looking at all of us.

"You kids doing alright?" he asks as we approach him. "Sorry about all the fuss, we had ourselves a bit of a swarm. But it's over now, the threat is gone."

"Who are you?" Thomas questions.

The man smirks "I'm the reason you're all still alive. And I'm intending on keeping you all that way. Now, come with me." he says, backing out of the room. "Let's get you kids squared away."

We all glance at each other, still confused, before hesitantly following after the man.

"You can call me Mr. Janson." he introduces, bringing us down the hall and out into a large, loud room where people are working with machines. "I run this place. For us it's a sanctuary, safe from the horrors of the outside world. You all should think of it as a way station. A home between homes. Watch yourselves."

I cover my head and duck out of they way as sparks fly down from above.  
Janson continues to lead us through the building, talking as people pass by our group and continue to work.

"So does that mean you're taking us home?" Thomas asks.

Janson turns around as he walks. "A home of sorts." he says, turning back around. "Sadly, there wouldn't be much left of where you came from. But we do have a place for you. A refuge, outside the Scorch, where Wicked will never find you. How does that sound?"

I glance to my left at Newt and Minho, an eyebrow raised. Life away from Wicked sounds pretty shucking nice.

"Why are you helping us?" Minho suspiciously asks.

"Lets just say the world out there is in a rather precarious situation. We're all hanging on by a very thin thread. Because you kids can survive the Flare virus you've become humanity's best chance of survival." Janson explains over his shoulder. "Unfortunately, this also makes you a target, as you've already noticed."

We stop in front of a door as Janson takes a key card out of his back pocket. "Beyond this door lies the beginning of your new lives."  
He scans the card and the card reader beeps, turning green and opening the door. He turns around, clapping. "First things first, let's do something about that smell."

He brings us further down the hall before stopping again. On the right side of the hall, theres a door with a sign that says 'womens', and on the left side of the hall theres another door with a sign that says 'mens'.

"Ladies, in here." he says, motioning with his hand to the door to our right. "And gentleman, in here." he motions to the left door with his other hand. "Let's keep things private, yes?"

•••

After Janson explained where to go once we're finished, me and Teresa separated from the boys, entering the shower room and going into our own small, private showers.

I quickly strip then turn the shower on, waiting for the water to get warm while I carefully take the bandage off my arm. I reach my hand under the stream of water just as it gets hotter, then, deciding the shower is hot enough, I put my whole body under the stream of water. I let out a sigh of relief, enjoying the warm water as it runs down my body.

Grabbing the soap and washing my body, being cautious of the cut on my arm, I watch as the dirt and dried blood from the Maze rinses down the drain. It feels amazing to be able to properly clean my hair and body, which was something I wasn't able to do in the Glade.

After a couple soothing more minutes, I turn off the water and dry off. I get dressed in clothes that have been laid out for me; an olive green long sleeve shirt, black jeans, socks and sneakers.

Hearing the other shower Teresa's in still running, I decide to leave her be, walking to the door we were instructed to leave through once we were finished. Opening the door, I'm met with a shorter woman wearing blue medical clothes, her short brown hair hanging just above her shoulders. She looks down at her clipboard before looking up at me.

She smiles. "Ah, you must be y/n. How was your shower?"

I hesitantly nod before smiling back. "It was very nice, thank you."  
I glance around, suddenly frowning. "Wait, where are the boys?" I ask suspiciously.

She motions down the hall with her head. "They've already finished washing up and are in the medical lab. Come with me and we'll get you there too." she instructs, turning around and walked briskly down the hallway.

The woman leads me through the halls before stopping and unlocking a door at the end of the hallway. She steps aside and motions for me to go first, following after me.

I look around the busy lab, medical supplies and liquids in cabinets and on tables, and doctors holding clipboards as they walk around or examine patients, writing results down. I immediately spot some of my friends as they go through their own medical checkups.

The woman puts her hand on my back and guides me down the lab.

I frown and worriedly lock eyes with Thomas as a man leads him past me, leaving the lab. Where are they taking him?

"Right here miss." the woman that brought me here says, motioning to an empty chair.

I sit down and glance to my left at Newt, he nervously watches the doctor as he slides a needle into his arm. I look for my other friends and only spot Minho being monitored as he runs on a treadmill and Fry also getting a needle stuck in his arm.

The woman leaves as a taller man wearing a white lab coat approaches me, setting down a metal tray that's only carrying a syringe with a long needle onto the table beside me.

He lifts up the syringe and examines it before standing in front of me. "Please, roll up your left sleeve."

I do as he says and roll my sleeve up, just past my elbow. I look away as I feel the uncomfortable prick of the needle breaking my skin on my forearm.

"Whats this?" he asks as he pulls the needle out of my arm.

I turn my attention back down to see him pointing at my upper arm. A small part of the gash I got in the Maze is sticking out just past my sleeve.

"Oh, it happened back in the Maze." I tell him, rolling my sleeve up more to show the whole wound. It's not that bad anymore, it's still red all around but the gash is almost closed up, and it barely hurts anymore.

He nods, grabbing a tube and a bandage. He squeezes the cream from the tube onto his gloved hands.

"What's that?" I worriedly ask as he grasps my arm.

"It's to clean the wound and help it heal properly." he replies, rubbing it in all over the gash. "It makes sure the wound doesn't become infected."

I silently watch as he finishes, wrapping a bandage around it before backing up. "And, you're done." he looks towards Newt, then the others. "It looks like the others are finished too. Let's get you guys with the others."

"Others?" I question, rolling down my sleeve and standing up.

•••

"Whoa. That's a lot of others." I mutter as me, Newt, Minho, Frypan and Winston walk into a large, and very loud, cafeteria thats filled with kids our age.  
There must be over fifty kids in here, all eating and talking with each other, boys and girls.

"Where did all these bloody kids even come from?" Newt asks beside me.

"I don't know, but what I do know is that there's food." Frypan grins, spotting the line to get a tray of food at the back of the cafeteria.

Furrowing my brows in confusion, I look at Fry. "Fry, we just ate a whole table of food. How could you possibly be hungry for more?"

He simply shrugs.

"Okay, we may not be hungry, but I think we should still grab a tray to blend in with the others." Newt suggests.

"Yeah, and we look like the dumbest shanks just standing around." Minho adds.

We all agree and go stand in line. We get our food and sit at a table with a couple boys that are already there, Newt and Minho sitting on both sides of me. As the others glance around, I poke around what's on my plate, mixing the rice and mashed potatoes before stabbing at my cornbread.

"Where are you guys from?" the dark skinned boy that was already at the table asks across from me.

I exchange glances with the others before looking back to the boy in front of me. "We came from a Maze. These people came and saved us after we escaped." I tell him.

"Where did you come from?" Newt asks the boy.

"A Maze, same as you." he replies.

I frown. So we weren't the only Maze. Wicked ruined a bunch of other kids lives too by throwing them into a Maze to be tested and studied like lab rats.

"So there was another Maze?" Minho asks. "We weren't the only ones?"

The second boy beside the first shakes his head. "There weren't only two. All the other kids in here came from a Maze too."

"How did you guys escape your Maze?" Winston asks beside dark skinned boy.

As the first boy begins to tell us, Minho bumps my shoulder. "Thomas is here." he mumbles, turned around in his seat.

I turn around and spot him near the door, looking around at all the kids. "Then go get him." I whisper before turning back to listen.

The boy explains how they escaped, which turned out to be different from how we did. They never really escaped, the people that saved them ended up breaking into the Maze with explosives.  
I scoot closer to Newt as Thomas and Minho get back, Thomas sitting down beside to me.

"After that, there was this big, loud explosion, and these guys came out of nowhere. They started shooting up the place." the first boy explains.

"It was intense." the second adds, taking a sip of his water.

The first one nods. "They pulled us out the Maze and brought us here. Some of the boys didn't trust them, so they stayed behind."

"What happened to them?" Newt asks. "The other people left behind in the Maze."

The dark skinned boy shrugs. "I don't know. I guess Wicked still has them."

I sigh, looking down at my plate as I remember the boys from our Maze that stayed behind, still being tested on by Wicked. I wish I could've convinced more to come with us.

"How long have you guys been here?" Newt questions.

"Not long." the boy sighs. "Only a day or two."  
He turns to his right. "That kid over there has been here the longest."

I lean forward, looking past Winston. Theres a boy with a hood pulled over his head sitting alone at a table in the corner, just staring at his food in front of him.

"His Maze was nothing but girls." the second boy smirks.

Minho raises his brow. "Really?" he asks almost like he doesn't believe it.

The first boy turns back to us. "Some guys, and I guess in your case girls," he says, smirking at me. "have all the luck. You know, being the only girl in a group of guys. I'm sure other girls would be jealous."

My eyes widen as I look down, embarrassed for some reason. Maybe the thought of being the only girl in a large group of guys has finally dawned on me. But these boys have become like family to me, and nothing has ever happened.

Seeing how embarrassed I am, Minho can't help but laugh at me, reaching over Thomas to start poking me in the arm. "Aw, she's embarrassed." he teases.

I quickly shove his hand away from me. "Slim it shank." I snap, glaring at him.

He's about to make a smartass remark, but is suddenly cut off by a loud voice from the front of the cafeteria.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen." Janson began, causing everyone to stop talking and turn around. "You all know how this works. If your name is called, please rise in an orderly fashion and join my colleagues behind me, who will escort you to the eastern wing. Your new lives are about to begin."

Everyone in the cafeteria immediately starts to clap and cheer. My group looks around, confused as to why everyone is celebrating.

Janson silently waits at the front of the room until everyone has become silent again. He takes his clipboard out from under his arm before beginning to read names off of it.

"Armando." he announces. I turn around as someone behind me cheers, high-fiving their friend before jogging to the front as Janson continues.  
"Grace. Hailey. Kyle. Xander. Alex. Jaren. Sarah. And Abigail." he finishes, closing his clipboard.

Everyone groans, disappointed that their name wasn't called.

"Now, now, don't get discouraged. If I could take more, I would. There's always tomorrow. Don't worry, your time will come." Janson says as he begins to walk out of the cafeteria with the kids he just called up. "Now, you may all resume what you were doing."

I watch as the guards lead the group of kids that were called to the front out of the room. A couple turn around, smiling and waving back to their friends before leaving for good.

"Where are they going?" Minho asks the dark skinned boy.

The boy sighs, still facing the door where they just left. "Far from here." he turns around and leans on the table. "Lucky bastards."

The second boy turns around and faces us too. "Its some kind of farm. A safe place. They're only able to take in a couple people at a time."

I frown. "Do you know where this place is?"

Both boys shake their heads.  
"Somewhere safe, thats all we know." one responds.

I sigh, nodding as I realize that we probably won't be getting many answers from these people.

Suddenly, Thomas starts to get out of his seat beside me.  
"What the hell?" he mumbles, quickly walking away from us.

I furrow my brows. "Thomas, what the shuck? Sit down." I quietly tell him, turning in my seat and watching him.

"Teresa!" he calls, ignoring me and rushing towards a window on the other side of the cafeteria.  
I look past him and notice Teresa and a couple doctors walking on the other side of the glass.

Thomas calls out Teresa's name again. She turns around just as she walks out of sight.  
I watch as Thomas tries to go through a door to follow her, but is quickly stopped by a guard.  
They talk for a couple minutes before Thomas comes back to our table, frowning as he sits down with a huff.

"What was that all about?" I ask Thomas, raising a brow.

"I just wanted to know why they still have her." he sighs.  
Everyone looks at him, expecting an answer, but he just puts his head down.

"So, are you gonna tell us what they said, or no?" Minho asks.

"They just told me they need to run a few more test. Then he told me to go sit back down." he explains, keeping his head down.

We nod, exchanging glances with each other before turning back to our food and deciding not to push any further.  
I know Teresa means a lot to Thomas. I'm not sure how though because they can only remember knowing each other for a couple days. We know that they were close before the Maze so they must have some kind of feeling towards each other, even after having their memories wiped.

We continue to talk for a few more minutes before multiple guards come into the cafeteria, announcing that we need to finish it up and head to our bunks.

I quickly get up with the rest of my group and throw my food away. We head to the door where a guard is already waiting to take us to our bunks.

•••

We argued with the guards when they attempted to take me away from the others, saying that the boys shouldn't sleep in the same room as me, and that I'll be put in my own room.  
But in the end, they agreed to let us stay together because I've already been with them for three years in the Maze.

The guard opens the door to our room, letting us walk in.  
I glance around and see five bunk beds, three lined up against the wall and the other two placed across from them in the middle of the room. Theres also a couple lockers for clothes, and a door to a small bathroom. Overall, it looks pretty nice. It's a big upgrade from everything we had in the Glade.

I grin as Fry and Minho fight for the first top bunk, Minho quickly winning, saying he gets it because he sat on it first.  
I exchange a glance with Winston, both of us smirking before we race to the second bunk bed.  
I easily outrun him, giggling as I beat him and climb up the ladder first. "Looks like I get top bunk."

"Fine." he laughs, walking to the third bunk bed and getting himself situated on the bottom. He sighs in contentment. "I could get used to this."

I lay on the edge of the bunk with my head leaning against my hand. "Definitely. It's better than sleeping outside in a hammock."

Newt nods. "Yeah. It's not bad." He looks around the room, him and Thomas are the only ones who haven't chosen a bed yet.

The guard leaves and shuts the door, locking it so we can't get out. I think nothing of it. Why would I doubt these people when they've given me food, clothes, and a real bed.

"What do you think these people want with Teresa?" Thomas asks, watching the door suspiciously.

"Ah, I wouldn't worry too much about her." I say, rolling onto my back and looking up at the ceiling. "Girls like us are tuff. We can handle ourselves."

"Exactly." Newt agrees, climbing to the top of the bunk across from me. "She'll be back soon."

I hear Thomas sigh before he turns the lights off. Everyone shifts and gets comfortable as they go to sleep.  
Thomas lays down on the bottom of my bunk, the whole thing shaking as he gets situated.

I pull the thin covers over my shoulders and get comfortable. I tiredly close my eyes as sleep takes over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is late, I thought I already had this chapter posted awhile ago but apparently I didn't do it. The next chapter is already published on my Wattpad- Newtslove_ ,,, so if you want to read it right now then go there, but I'll be posting chapter fourteen here most likely in about a week, maybe :)  
> Don't forget to leave Kudos so I know you enjoy the story :)))


	14. Chapter Fourteen: Another Escape

The wake up routine this morning was about the same as usual. Since we're in a different environment, Minho had to adapt and find a new way to wake me up. Today he chose to go against what the others were saying, and poured water on my face, which resulted in him getting his ass beat by me.

After that, we all began to get ready, needing to share the bathroom to get changed and freshen up.   
I grab a navy blue long sleeved shirt and black pants from a locker, then sit on a bed while I wait for my turn in the bathroom.  
As I wait, I notice Thomas anxiously staring at the ground, running his hand through his hair while tapping his foot. I can immediately tell somethings up.

But before I can ask him what's wrong, Newt walks out of the bathroom.  
He nods his head towards the door. "Your turn." he tells me.

"Thanks." I mumble, grabbing my clothes and walking into the bathroom.

•••

I sit down at the cafeteria tables with my friends after we grab a tray of food, sitting at the end of the table beside Thomas.

"Thomas, what you saw might not have even been what you think it is." I tell him quietly, trying to keep my voice down so no one else can hear our groups conversation.

He shakes his head. "No. They were obviously bodies. Anyone could notice that, even Minho."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean shank?" Minho huffs. "I'm as smart as the rest of you, if not smarter."

"Oh, then that must mean I'm not a girl." I quip, smirking and rolling my eyes. "If we're throwing lies out there."

Minho glares at me from across the table as everyone snickers, well everyone except Minho and Thomas.  
I immediately stop as Minho kicks my shin underneath the table, hard. I squeeze my eyes shut and hiss through clenched teeth.

"You shank." I growl, glaring at a smug looking Minho.

Before I can retaliate and kick him back twice as hard, Janson clears his voice at the front of the cafeteria, getting everyone's attention before he begins to call names off his clipboard.

After a couple names, we start to ignore him and get back to our conversation from earlier.

"I need to find out what's through that door." Thomas mumbles.

"We've been over this." Newt whispers. "You told us that they were covered up, so you don't know what you saw. It could've been anything under there."

Thomas once again shakes his head. "I know exactly what I saw. They were bodies." he states. "Aris said they bring a new batch in every night."

"Who the shuck is Aris?" Minho asks in a hushed voice.

Thomas looks past Winston, nodding in that direction.

I look with the rest of the group, seeing a boy in a hood sitting in the corner of the cafeteria by himself. I raise a brow as I watch him inspect his cornbread. Oh yeah, let's trust the loner kid that studies cornbread.

Minho turns back to Thomas. "Well, I'm sold." he says sarcastically.

"Yeah, he doesn't seem weird at all." I add, looking back up to Janson as he finishes calling names.

The kids in the cafeteria unenthusiastically clap, most of them disappointed that their name wasn't on todays list. After Thomas told us what he thought he saw, I've become a little skeptical and I'm definitely in no rush to have my name called. I know Thomas wouldn't lie to us, but I can't help but think he might be a little too paranoid about this place.

"Okay, until we know anything for certain, we should just keep our heads down and try not to draw any attention to ourselves, all right?" Newt decided, looking around at all of us, his gaze staying on Thomas the longest.

I nod, looking around the table as everyone else agrees that that's the smartest move right now. But glancing at Thomas to make sure he understood the most, I can tell he wasn't listening to a thing Newt just said.

He suddenly slams his hands on the table, startling me as he gets up and swiftly makes his way across the cafeteria.

"Oh my god." I sigh, putting my face in my hands.

"What is he doing?" Newt asks, watching Thomas completely ignore what he just said.

"I think he's drawing attention to himself." Fry mutters.

I pick my head up and watch as Thomas attempts to blend in and go through the doors with the kids who had their name called. He immediately gets stoped as one of the guards puts his hand on his chest and lightly pushes him back, saying something to Thomas.  
Thomas shakes his head before attempting to walk through the doors again, only to be stoped and pushed back by the guard again. I can tell he's getting angry when he gets in the guards face, most likely using some excuse the get through those doors. But the guard doesn't back down, he pushes Thomas out of his face while mumbling something.

I let out as sigh of relief as Thomas turns around and starts heading back to our table. "At least he still has some sense left in him."

Suddenly, Thomas spins back around, charging at the guard, only to be stopped once again. This time the guard roughly shoves him back.   
"Back off!" the man shouts, drawing all the attention to him and Thomas.

"Never mind." I mutter, getting up with the others and rushing towards Thomas.

"What's your problem man?!" Thomas shouts as he shoves the guard. "What the hell, huh?!"

"Back off!" The man shouts, shoving Thomas back.

"Whoa, whoa!" I shout, standing between the two as the others hold Thomas back.

"Why won't you just let me see her?!" Thomas exclaims as the others pull him back.

The guard glares at Thomas then me, shoving my hand away before pointing back at Thomas. "Control your friend!" he snaps.

I glare back at him, backing up to stand next to Newt as Janson pushes his way past the guards.   
"Whats going on here?" he asks, looking at his men, then back to us.   
"Thomas?" Janson says in disbelief. "I thought we could trust each other." he firmly grasps Thomas's shoulder. "You know we're all on the same team here."

"Are we?" Thomas questions, glaring at Janson.

The man stares at Thomas, a slight smirk twitching on his face. "Get them to their bunks." he orders, obviously trying to hide his frustration.

•••

"Get your asses in there! Everyone!" The guards order, roughly shoving us into our room.

I stumble, catching myself and turning around just as the guards slam the door closed.   
I feel anger rise in my chest and furiously spin back around, marching right up to Thomas.

"What the actual shuck?!" I exclaim, throwing my hands up as the others also angrily crowd around Thomas. "These people saved us from Wicked and you can't help but pick fights with the guards here?!"

"Yeah, what the hell was that about back there?" Minho questions in a calmer tone, anger still evident in his voice.

"You didn't actually think they were just going to let you through?" Newt asks, frowning.

Thomas rolls his eyes, digging in his pocket for something. "No of course I didn't."

He pulls out one of the guards key cards that he must've grabbed while trying to push past the men.

I groan, annoyed that he went through all that trouble just to investigate what's through those doors that he's been so invested in.

"I'm gonna find out what's on the other side of that door." Thomas states.

"Oh, right. Okay." Newt says, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms. "That's a bloody brilliant idea."

"Newt, they're hiding something. Okay?" Thomas confidently says. "These people are not who they say they are."

Newt groans and quickly follows after Thomas as the brunette walks towards the vent to leave. "No, Thomas, you don't know that!"

We all follow behind Newt, angry with Thomas and his ability to jump to conclusions so quickly.

"The only thing that we do know is that they helped rescue us from Wicked!" Newt exclaims. "They gave us new clothes. They gave us food. They gave us a proper bed. Some of us haven't had that in a long time."

Thomas sighs. "Yeah but-"

Before Thomas could finish, Newt quickly cuts him off, glaring at him. "Some of us a lot longer than others."

Before anyone could say anything else, the vent underneath the bed begins to rattle before loudly sliding out from under the bed, scraping against the floor before coming to a stop a few feet in front of the bed.

"What the?" I say, puzzled as the loner boy from the cafeteria crawls out from under the bed.

"Hey Thomas." The boy smiles, looking up from his position on the ground. "You got it right?"

"Yeah, I got it. Let's go." Thomas replies, showing the card as I exchange puzzled glances with the others.

"All right, look, maybe you guys are right. Maybe I'm just being paranoid." Thomas says, getting down on the ground and going feet first under the bed, the rest of us crouching around him. "But I have to find out for sure. Just cover for me. I'll be back as soon as I can."

With that, he slides himself under the bed, following after Aris, the loner kid.

I sigh, running my hands through my hair. I glance at Newt to my right, watching him nervously mess with his bottom lip as he stares at the place Thomas was moments earlier. He turns his head and looks at me, the worried expression not leaving his face. I smile reassuringly, gently pulling his hand away from his lip.

"He'll be back soon." I nod, squeezing his hand before standing up.   
I make my way to a bunk, sitting down and leaning against the metal pole used to hold the top bunk up. "In the meantime, we should just calm down and wait patiently."

Everyone agrees as they take a seat on a bed, everyone except Newt, who stays standing.

•••

I rest my chin in my hands, leaning on my knees as I watch Newt pace in front of me for about the hundredth time. He's been pacing nonstop since Thomas left and its slowly getting on my nerves. He also continues to bite and pull on his bottom lip, even after the many times I've told him to stop.

"Newt, I swear." I sigh, rubbing my face. "Please, just sit down. Your pacing is getting on my nerves."

"Well, I'm sorry that I can't help but be bloody anxious." Newt huffs, taking another lap across the room while glaring at me. It's like he's testing to see if I'll actually do something, which I will.

I calmly get up and make my way towards Newt, firmly grasping his arms, getting him to stop pacing. I lock eyes with him, holding his gaze. "Everything will be okay." I reassure him. "Thomas will be back any minute-"

I'm interrupted by the vent door sliding across the floor, Thomas scrambling out from under the bed, a worried look on his face.

"Thomas!" Fry says as everyone stands up, rushing to Thomas while he panics.

"We gotta go." Thomas mutters urgently, rushing towards the door. "We gotta go right now."

"What the shuck do you mean?" I ask as everyone else questions him at the same time.

He looks at the door before turning back around and running to a bed. "They're coming. Come on. We have to go now." he says, ignoring us as he pulls the bedsheets off the mattress. "They're coming for us."

"Thomas, what's going on? Who's coming?" I frown, following him back to the door as he begins to tie the sheet around the door handle.

"It's Paige. She's still alive." he mumbles almost inaudibly.

"What happened in there?" Minho asks beside me.

I glance back as Frypan, Winston, and Jack try to get answers out of Aris as we continue to question Thomas.

"Thomas, can you just calm down and talk to us?" Newt questions, growing impatient like the rest of us.

"She's still alive." Thomas replies.

"Who's she? Teresa?" Minho guesses, confused.

Thomas shakes his head, still tying the sheets to the door handle. "No, Ava."

"Ava?" I repeat, irritated with his vague answers.

Thomas doesn't reply, his attention focused on getting the door locked as he tugs on the sheet to make sure it's secure.

"Will you just turn around and talk to us?!" Newt snaps.

"It's Wicked!" he exclaims, spinning around.

I freeze, too shocked to say anything else and still a little confused as to what he saw through those doors. Wicked tricked us into thinking we were finally safe and that things would get better. They lied to everyone and said they would be taking kids to a safe place, a place far from Wicked. After this, I bet I know exactly what's behind those doors.

"It's still Wicked. It's always been Wicked." Thomas continues, taking the mattress off the bed frame and pushing it against the door as everyone watches in shock.

Newt puts his hand against the wall beside Thomas, staring at him intently. "What did you see?"

Thomas stares at him before looking to the rest of us, shaking his head. "I'll tell you later, but right now we need to go. Janson's on his way now."

He rushes back to the vent. "Come on." he orders before crawling into the vents.

I groan, wanting some answers but heading to the vent anyways, knowing I'll be getting them out of Thomas later. I crouch down, looking back at the others before crawling into the vent after Thomas, the others close behind me.

I get in the vent, making my way to Thomas as he anxiously waits for everyone to get in.  
"Which way Aris?" he calls back to Aris, who apparently knows these vents like the back of his hand.

"Left!" Aris shouts from somewhere in the middle of our line.   
Thomas nods before suddenly taking off, I quickly follow him through the vents, crawling as fast as possible so we have enough time to get Teresa then get out of this place.

Aris continues to help by shouting out a direction to go every time we come to an intersection, getting us out much quicker than we would've without him.

While turning a corner, I glance behind me and notice Newt slowing down, wincing every time he moves forward. Crawling must be hard on his leg, it's even been hurting me every time I slam my knee or elbow onto the vent as I crawl.

"It's right there!" Aris exclaims.

I look up and see a taller vent door at the end of the air duct. As we approach it the vent gets taller, allowing us to stand up.

Thomas opens the vent door and bursts out into the hallway. He rushes ahead of us to check if the coast is clear as I get out of the vent, turning around and helping Newt out too.

As everyone scrambles out, Thomas rushes back to us.  
"Come on. Come on. Come on." he hurries us, making sure we're all out before turning around to go.

"You guys go ahead. Theres something I have to do." Aris tells us.

Thomas turns back around. "What are you talking about?"

"Trust me, it's important. You guys wanna get outta here right? Just go." the new boy orders, starting to climb back into the vent.

"We really don't have the time to argue about it." I advised, taking charge so we can hurry things up and get going. "Aris, go do what you need to do."

"I'll go with him." Winston says, climbing into the vent after Aris.

Frypan shuts the door and we take off towards the hall Thomas made sure was clear.

"You sure we can trust this kid?" Minho asks.

"You guys don't wanna know where we'd be without him." Thomas answers.

We turn the corner, only to stop in our tracks, almost running into a doctor that works here. We freeze, nobody moving as the lady skeptically looks at us. I exchange glances with Newt before staring at the woman. Wow, Thomas did a real good job at making sure the coast is clear.

"What are you kids doing out?" The lady asks suspiciously.

We don't reply, unsure of how to answer.

Suddenly, a blaring alarm and flashing orange lights go off, echoing throughout the building. I groan as the alarm gives us away.

"Perfect timing." I mutter, everyone exchanging glances.

Thomas discreetly nods his head towards the woman, suggesting we grab her.

She notices and quickly turns around and sprints down the hall, but with me and Minho chasing her, we're able to catch her in seconds.

We each grab ahold of one of her arms, keeping her in place as the others catch up. Minho and I smirk triumphantly, high-fiving each other.

"Good job." he grins. "I got her first though."

"What?! No way! We both grabbed her at the same time!" I argue back as Thomas grabs the woman's arm from us and continues walking quickly, demanding to know the way to Teresa.

"Nuh uh." Minho denies. "You're just mad I'm faster."

"You're so childish Minho." I retort, arguing with Minho at the back of our group as we walk through the halls.

Newt spins around, tightly grabbing both of our arms to separate us. "Will you two shut it? You both sound bloody childish." he grumbles, pulling us along.

"Yes, ma'am." Minho smirks, obviously trying to mess with Newt.

I snicker, picking up my pace as Thomas and the others start to run through the halls.  
We sharply turn a corner and freeze as a guard points a gun at us while charging right at us.

"Freeze!" he orders, shooting his gun.

I quickly duck as a buzzing, electric clamp flies at me, barely missing me.

"Oh shit." I mumble as I turn and see the clamp attach itself to the wall behind us, electricity shooting into the wall. Okay lets definitely not get hit with one of those.

"Why are they shooting at us?!"Frypan shouts.

Newt pulls me back around the corner as the guard fires more shots at us, each one hitting the wall. We run back the way we came, deciding to find a better route to Teresa.

Suddenly, Minho stops and turns around, causing the rest of us to stop and turn too.

"Minho, what the hell are you doing?" Thomas asks.

Minho ignores him and starts charging down the hall, back to the corner that the guard should be turning around any time now.

"Minho!" Thomas shouts, rushing after him while pulling the doctor along.

The rest of us run down the hall after Minho and Thomas.   
Minho sprints and gets to the corner just as the guard turns around it, he rams his knee into the guards stomach, causing him to fly back and smack against the wall.

I sprint to the end of the hall and use the wall to stop myself, looking from the small blood trail on the wall, down to the unconscious man lying on the ground. Shocked, I look up at Minho as he stands over the man.

"Shit Minho." Newt mumbles, looking at the man then Minho.

Thomas hurriedly grabs the guards launcher before nodding his head. "Okay. Come on. Let's go." he grabs the doctor again, pointing the launcher at her back.

"Take us to her!" Thomas orders, pushing the end of the gun into the woman's back to get her going.

The woman quickly leads us down the halls before stopping at a metal door.   
"This is it." she says, slowly opening the door.

Thomas grows impatient and shoves the door open, rushing in and shouting out orders to the other doctors in the room.

I'm at the back of the group, waiting for the others to go in before me as I glance around to make sure no one's coming.

I suddenly hear shouting coming from the right, and soon after, Janson and his guards turn around the corner. My eyes widen as they raise their launchers and start shooting.

Someone grabs my wrist and quickly yanks me into the room, just before the clamps hit me. I look up and see Newt's the one who pulled me out of the way.

I smile at him as a thank you while slamming the door shut and locked behind me.

"Where is she?!" Thomas angrily exclaims, aiming the launcher at the doctors as they tremble.

When they don't reply, Thomas lowers the weapon and notices the closed curtain to his right. He quickly passes the launcher to Minho, who points the gun back at the doctors, and rushes to the curtain, yanking it aside to reveal Teresa sleeping on a bed.

"Get down!" Minho orders the doctors. "On your knees now!"

They do as he says, afraid to be shot by who knows how many volts of electricity.

Newt passes me some rope he found on a shelf. "Help me tie their hands up."

I nod as Newt orders for the doctors the give us their hands. I approach the doctor that led us here and begin wrapping the rope around her wrists.

She glares up at me. "You'll never get away with this."

"I don't remember asking, lady." I snap, pulling on the rope to finish it tightly, causing her to wince slightly. Not like I care, its nothing compared to what Wicked has done to us.

"Guys, they're almost here!" Frypan warns, peeking through the small window on the door. "Where do we go?"

"We need to block the door." I say, panicked as Janson gets closer.

Newt frantically looks around, thinking.

He suddenly wheels a metal cart towards the door. "Frypan move!" he shouts, tipping the cart onto its side. Newt and Frypan shove the cart in front of the door, blocking the door so it won't be able to open completely.

They block the door just as the guards try to open it, only being able to crack the door open slightly.

Startled, we jump back, moving away from the door and further towards the back of the room. Minho points the launcher at the door as the guards continue to aggressively ram against it, and slowly, the metal cart starts to bend and the door opens an inch.

"Okay, we gotta get out of here right now!" Minho urgently shouts back at Thomas.

I turn and watch as Thomas nervously glances around the room, looking for a way to get us out of here.   
He reaches down and picks up a stool. "Everyone stand back!" he orders, slamming to stool against the window at the back of the room.

There's a thud as the glass only wobbles, the stool bouncing off the window.

"Newt, help!" Thomas shouts, reeling back as Newt rushes over and picks a stool up too.

Together, they both slam the stools against the glass, shattering it into a million tiny pieces. Thomas clears the window frame of any large pieces before turning back to us.

"Okay, come on! Come on!" he rushes, jumping through the window as Teresa lays a blanket over the sharp glass to climb over.

As Frypan climbs over, I nervously watch the guards push open the door even more, now almost being able to squeeze through.

"Y/n! Let's go!" Newt shouts from the other side, motioning for me to hurry.

I rush to the window frame, the tiny glass shards crunching under my shoes. Newt reaches a hand out and helps me over, lifting me down into the other room.

Minho waits until I'm on the other side before he turns away from the guards breaking to door down, throwing the launcher to Thomas before climbing through the window himself.

I don't look back at the guards as we quickly follow Thomas to a door at the back of the room. He throws open the door and freezes, stumbling slightly as we bump into his back.

I look over Thomas's shoulder and see a guard blocking our way out. The man is obviously just as surprised to see us as we are to see him.

Before the man can react, Thomas lifts the launcher and fires one of the clamps into the mans chest, sending him flying backwards and to the ground.

"Damn, Thomas."I mutter as we watch for a second with wide eyes as the man convulses on the ground.

"Okay, come on!" Thomas orders, rushing past the man on the ground.

I follow behind, glancing down at the guard and grimacing at the thought of how much electricity is flowing through his body right now.   
Yikes. Never want to be shot by one of those.

I end up passing Teresa and Newt, running behind Thomas as he leads us through the halls, alarms and speakers blaring alerts as we run.

"There it is!" Thomas shouts, pointing at a door at the end of the hallway.

Thomas fishes a keycard out of his pocket as we approach the card scanner that'll open the door. He swipes the card but the reader goes red, denying the card.

"No, no, no, no!" he hisses, continuing to aggressively swipe the card, only to get the same results. "Shit."

I spin around as I hear Janson suddenly call Thomas's name from the end of the hall.

Thomas shoves the card into my hands as he grips the launcher, aiming it at Janson while slowly walking towards him.

Janson steps in front of his men, putting his hands up as if showing he's not a threat.

"Open this door, Janson!" Thomas exclaims.

"You really don't want me to." Janson smirks, shaking his head as he slowly walks closer.

I turn around and begin swiping the keycard again, hoping to somehow get a different result, one that'll get this door open.

Thomas once again, demands to have the door opened, but Janson refuses again.

"Listen! I'm trying to save your lives. The Maze is one thing, but you kids wouldn't last a day out in the Scorch." I listen to Janson explain behind me as I swipe the card again. "If the elements don't kill you, the Cranks will."

"You're swiping it too shucking fast." Minho hisses beside me.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Would you like to do it?" I snap, shoving the card into his hands.

"As a matter of fact, yes." he nods, beginning to swipe the card exactly how I was moments before.

I look over my shoulder and see the Ratman's ugly smirk. "You're not getting through those doors Thomas."

I turn back to the scanner as it suddenly beeps a positive note, the reader turning green.

"Yes! I did it!" Minho cheers as the door slides up.

"No you didn't slinthead, it was all Aris." I mumble, smacking the back of Minho's head before grinning at Aris and Winston as they stand in front of us, grinning back.

"Hey, guys." he smiles, out of breath.

I rush through the doors opening, turning once I'm safely on the other side.

"Thomas! Come on! Let's go!" Newt shouts back at Thomas, letting him know the door is open.

Thomas glances back at us before turning back to Janson. He quickly fires off the last couple shots from the launcher before throwing it at the guards, turning around and sprinting towards us.

Suddenly, the door begins to shut, sliding down slowly as Thomas runs even faster.

"Come on Thomas!" the others shout.

"Faster, Thomas! Let's go!" Minho pushes, motioning for Thomas to move faster.

"Hurry, Thomas! Come on!" I nervously exclaim.

There's only a couple seconds before the doors close for good when Thomas quickly motions for us to move aside.   
We move as Thomas slides under the door at the last second before it closes completely.

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding, reaching down with the others to lift Thomas off the ground.

"Thomas, what's going on?" Teresa questions, slightly tugging on Thomas's sleeve, only to be ignored as he watches Janson through the window on the door.

I watch as Aris rushes up to the card reader and smashes it, making sure no one can get the door open, just in time too.   
Janson slams against the door, angrily looking through the window before reaching down and trying to use his keycard on the scanner.

I glare at Janson one more time as he slams his palms against the window, a furious expression on his face. I turn around and follow the others just after I watch Thomas flip Janson the bird.

We sprint through the compound as alarms continue to blare, watching out for any guards that are chasing after us.

We make it to the large metal doors that we walked through only yesterday, not knowing that these are the same people who've ruined our lives.

As Thomas looks for a way to open the doors, I spot a large, red lever with a yellow arrow, the words 'open' written over the arrow. I quickly reach out and pull the lever the direction the arrow shows.

I move back as the doors click and hiss before grumbling as they begin to open.

I flinch back as we're immediately exposed to strong gusts of wind from outside.

Thomas glances back at us. "Come on!" he orders, rushing into the wind storm.

I exchange nervous glances with Newt before he grabs my hand and pulls me after Thomas. I immediately need to cover my eyes as the wind whips sand everywhere, the exposed parts of my body begin to hurt and itch as the tiny grains of sand hit me at high speeds.

As we get farther away from the compound the wind becomes less harsh, allowing me to look around without getting sand in my eyes. Luckily it's dark out, so Wicked will have a hard time spotting us as we run away.

We climb up a sand dune, stumbling in the soft sand as we try to get to the top as quick as possible.

Thomas gets to the top first. He turns around and pulls me up the rest of the way before reaching down to help Teresa as I help Newt.

Hearing the sound of engines I suddenly freeze, looking back at the compound as dirt bikes ride out.

"That's not good!" I shout over the wind.

As the others reach the top of the dune, Thomas looks at the dirt bikes as they quickly ride towards us.

"Come on!" he shouts, turning around and beginning to run. "We'll lose them in the storm!"

We quickly follow after him, running far into the desert before ducking down behind a small dune.   
I peek over the top and notice dozens of headlights in the distance, everyone frantically looking around for us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading <3  
> Don't forget to leave kudos :))


	15. Chapter Fifteen: Cranks

I peek over the sand dune, watching the dirt bike headlights move in the distance as Wicked searches for our group. If we stay here any longer they'll find us and surely kill us for escaping.

I turn to Thomas. "We need to move." I advise, urgency in my voice. "If we stay here much longer they'll find us in minutes."

Thomas nods, turning to the others on his right. "Okay everyone. Let's move." he starts crawling backwards, further down the dune.   
"Stay low!" he orders as everyone follows after him.

Once we're far enough down the sandy slope, we get up and start sprinting through the sand, trying to get as much distance between us and Wicked as possible.

"Teresa, hang on! We need to stay together!" Thomas shouts at Teresa as she runs down the dune.

I scramble to the top and look down, watching as Teresa ignores Thomas and continues running towards a large building thats almost completely buried in sand.

"I think we lost them!" Minho shouts over the howling wind.

I continue running with the others, following Teresa towards the buried building.   
I walk along the structure, coming to a stop at a broken window beside Teresa and Thomas, the others behind me. I look through the hole and into the building, squinting as I try to see any kind of danger thats waiting for us, but it too dark.

"Come on!" Teresa shouts, jumping through the hole and disappearing into the darkness immediately.

"Teresa!" we all shout in sync, Thomas and I attempting to grab her arm.

I start to panic after a couple seconds of silence, worried something bad had already happened to her.  
"Teresa?!" I worriedly shout.

"Get down here!" she calls from the darkness, causing me sigh in relief.

Even if she is fine, I still don't think going in is a good idea, we don't know what's in there. Anything could be around a corner ready to hurt us, and judging by the large amount of building that isn't covered in sand, I'm guessing this place is massive, meaning theres plenty of places for something to be hiding.

Thomas glances at us before suddenly running into the building. "Let's go!" he shouts to the rest of us.

Frypan, Winston, and Jack follow after, running down the sand slope.

I groan, looking down at the hill everyone ran down and deciding it must not be too steep since no one has shouted a warning. I grab Newt's hand and pull him through the broken window, giving him no time to react as we jump through.

However, immediately after jumping, I come to find out that the slope is actually steeper than I had thought. I lose my footing halfway down and end up falling, bringing Newt down with me as we roll the rest of the way down. We smack heads before finally coming to a stop, Newt landing on top of me.

"Ugh.." I groan, rubbing my forehead after just bumping heads. As I open my eyes, it finally registers in my brain how close we are. I quickly scramble back as he sits up.

"Sorry, Newt." I apologize, ignoring how hot my face felt for a moment. "I didn't think the slope was that steep."

"No worries." he chuckles, rubbing his forehead before getting up.

Thomas reaches down and helps me up. "You guys okay?" he asks.

"Yeah, just a bump." I reply, brushing myself off until someone suddenly slams into me, bringing me down to the ground once again.

I look up as Minho hovers above me, just how Newt was, laughing.

"Ugh, get off of me you shank." I grunt, shoving him away from me before getting up and dusting myself off again.

"That was actually pretty fun." Minho chuckles, somehow out of breath as he reaches into his pocket.

"Sure." I mutter.

Suddenly, Minho pulls a flashlight out of his pocket. He turns it on and shines it all around us.  
"Where the shuck are we?" he mumbles.

I look around, the moonlight shining through the glass ceilings allowing me to see a little bit. Theres a bunch of trash and furniture lying around everywhere, either covered in dust or sand. Theres also smaller rooms all around the building, and an escalator that leads up to a second story. "I'm guessing it's a mall."

"It doesn't matter, we gotta go." Thomas suddenly says, gaining my attention as he hurriedly motions for us to follow him, but everyone stays still. "We gotta keep moving."

"No." Teresa says, but Thomas keeps going. "Thomas, stop!" she orders, causing him to turn around and look at her.

"Tell me what's going on." she says.

He sighs, walking back to us. "It's Wicked." he tells her. "They lied to us. We never escaped."

"Well, now that we have some time, why don't you tell us what you and Aris saw." I say, needing answers.

He nods, sighing as he figures out how to start. "Aris and I, we found bodies. Too many to count."

My eyes widen as I exchange shocked, and confused glances with Newt.

"What do you mean? Dead bodies?" Minho asks, the same expression on his face.

Thomas shakes his head. "No, but they weren't alive either. They had them strung up. With tubes coming out of them." he explains to us. "They were being drained."

I frown, looking down as I process what Wicked is doing. They're taking innocent kids and draining their life to get what they want, taking us from our families and erasing our memories to put us through their trials.

"Theres something inside of us that Wicked wants. Something in our blood." Thomas continues. "So we have to get as far away from them as possible. We can't end up like that."

I glance at Newt as he nods beside me. "Okay." he agrees. "So, what's the plan?"

We all look at Thomas, expecting him to tell us his master plan of how he'll get us all away from Wicked, and find some safe place for us to go. But he just stays silent, shaking his head.

"You do have a plan, right?" Newt asks, getting irritated.

"I uh- I don't know." Thomas mutters.

Just like that, my hope to get away from Wicked vanishes. I slowly feel myself grow irritated with Thomas.   
I groan, rubbing my temples, just as I'm about to say something, Newt beats me to it.

"Well, we followed you out here, Thomas and now you're saying that you have no idea where we're going or what we're doing?!" Newt snaps, getting angry.

I gently grasp his arm and pull him back. "Okay, I know we're all a little irritated right now," I say, glancing at everyone, before bringing my attention back to Newt, our eyes locking. "but we need to stay calm or else we'll never figure something out."

Newt nods, letting out a breath and running a hand through his hair.

"Wait. Janson said something about people hiding in the mountains." Aris speaks up. "Some kind of resistance or army."

"The Right Arm." Thomas mumbles, still in thought before looking up at us. "The Right Arm. If they're really against Wicked, maybe they can help us."

I raise my brow, skeptical. Even if they are real, how would we even find them, and get them to help a group of random teenagers who just showed up out of the desert.

Newt looks at Thomas in disbelief. "People. In the mountains. Mountain people." he asks, raising a brow. "That's your plan?"

Thomas slowly nods. "It's the only chance we have."

I nod. He's right, we don't have much of a choice. "Okay, it's worth a shot."

"Hey guys." Winston says behind the group. At some point he wandered off a bit and is now crouched down, looking at something on the ground. "Check this out."

We walk over and Minho points a light at the ground, lighting up the area in front of Winston better.  
I look to where Winston's pointing and see footprints leading away from us in the sand.

"Someone's been down here."

"Can we just get going?" I ask, uneasy. "If they're still around, I really don't want to meet them."

"Yeah, okay." Thomas agrees. "Lets walk around and see if we can scavenge anything; water, clothes, possibly food. But be cautious, and not too loud."

We begin to walk through the building, everyone staying close to Minho since he's the one with the flashlight. He walks up to a small closed up shop and peers through the clear shutters. "Guys, come on. Open it up." he says.

Minho, Thomas, and Winston crouch down and lift the shutters up.  
I cringe at how loud the sound is, glancing around to make sure nobody heard and is coming for us. It looks like the coast is clear for now.

I walk in and begin to examine the room, noticing all the clothes and supplies.

"Here." Newt says, nudging my arm to get my attention. He hands me a flashlight, which I gladly accept.

"Thanks." I mumble, switching the light on so I can see better as I walk further into the store.

I crouch down next to Minho as he pulls a black jacket out of the pile of clothes in front of us. He shakes the dust and dirt off before glancing at me. "Looks like people lived here."

"Where are they now?" Newt wonders, looking around the room.

"Long gone I hope." I reply.

"Let's pack some of this stuff up. Anything you think you might need." Thomas tells us, putting on a black jacket he found on a table. "We'll split up, see what else we can find. Meet back here."

Newt tosses a flashlight to Thomas before him, Minho, Winston, Aris, and Jack leave.   
I turn back around and start digging through the pile of clothes while Frypan and Newt fill up packs with water and some food. I pick out a dark blue, hooded jacket and a navy blue scarf. Throwing those over my arm, I walk around to try and find a different pair of pants and shoes.

"Hey." I smile, approaching Teresa as she digs through clothes.

"Hey." she mutters, not even looking up at me as I begin to look through the pile too.

I frown, weirded out by her response. "Are you okay?" I question, reaching out and grabbing a plain cream colored, long-sleeved shirt. "You've been acting a little different."

"I guess I've just been tired and confused." she sighs. "I don't know why Wicked tested me, and I don't know what they did to me while I was out, but I'm glad we're safe and it's over now."

I look at her and can immediately tell by her vague answers and her awkward body movement that she's lying to me. I decide to not push for answers, maybe they put her through something she doesn't want to talk about.

We continue to pick out clothes in awkward silence before moving to the back of the store to change in private.  
I slip the jacket over my long sleeve shirt, leaving it unzipped, before throwing the scarf around my neck and changing into the light grey jeans I picked out. I sit down across from Teresa as I tie up the laces on my black combat boots.

Standing up, I take one last look at Teresa as she grabs a small picture before walking out of the store's back room, running into Newt on my way out.

"Hey, I made you a pack." he says, swinging it in the air before handing it to me.

"Thanks, Newt." I smile, taking the pack and putting it on.

Suddenly, the lights around us turn on, startling me. I look around the room, the string lights hanging around the room giving off a golden glow that lights up everything around me with warm colors.

I turn back towards Newt and notice him staring at me. "You look nice." he smiles warmly.

My eyes widen at the compliment and I can feel my face start to get hot again. I smile back nervously. "Thank you."  
I look at what he's wearing; a brown coat, tan pants, boots, and a red scarf around his neck. "You uh- you look good too." I stutter.

He laughs softly, about to reply when someone cuts him off.  
"Guys! Check it out!" I hear Winston excitedly shout from outside the store we're in.

I switch off my flashlight and put it in my pack as Newt, Teresa, and I walk out of the store and into the large main room, meeting up with Fry, Aris, Winston, and Jack.

"Whoa..." I say, marveling at the way all the lights illuminate the mall around us.  
Looking around, I notice all the other shops inside the mall, the signs to each broken or gone completely, making it impossible to know what the store was before all this happened. Almost every store window is either boarded up, or broken through.

"I wonder what happened to all the people who lived here." Frypan mumbles, looking at all the small campsites everywhere.

"If everything's like this, then I couldn't have been good." Newt points out.

"HEY!" someone yells in the distance, causing me to turn my attention towards two figures sprinting towards us.

"Thomas..?" Newt mumbles, furrowing his brows to try and get a better look at the two distant figures as they continue to shout at us.

My eyes widen as more figures turn around the corner, chasing after Minho and Thomas, their screeches echoing off the walls.

"Oh, shit!" Newt exclaims, throwing his pack over his shoulder as everyone gets ready to run.

"Go! Get outta here!" Minho shouts.

Newt grabs my hand, pulling me behind him as we turn and run away from the screaming monsters chasing us. Thomas and Minho catch up to our group while we hurriedly make our way up a pair of broken down escalators.

"What the hell are those things?!" Winston exclaims as we reach the top.

Once we're at the top, I glance down and watch as the monsters make it to the bottom of the escalator, quickly making their way up.

"They're cranks!" I shout, remembering somewhere in Janson's speech the mention of creature's out in the scorch.

"Which way do we go?" Minho asks, looking around us, unsure of which way we should take.

To our left I spot another set of broken escalators that'll take us further up and hopefully get us out of here. "This way!" I order, now tugging on Newts hand.

Before we can make it to the escalators, a crank turns the corner in front of us, blocking our way. It screeches before charging at us.

Suddenly, Aris grips a bat he found, running straight towards the crank.

"Wait, Aris!" Minho shouts, attempting to reaching for him.

Aris readys his weapon, sliding to his knees while swinging the bat at the cranks shins, taking it down. It slides across the floor and between our group, separating Thomas and Teresa from the rest of us.

"Go around!" Thomas exclaims as him and Teresa start heading up a separate set of escalators, fighting off cranks that attack them.

Suddenly, the cranks that were chasing us up the first escalator show up behind us.   
Not having much of a choice, we run towards the other set of escalators further down the path.

As we get to the bottom of them, I spot a crowbar and hurriedly pick it up before Newt pushes me up the escalator.

I suddenly freeze as I climb, causing Newt to bump into my back. At the top of the escalator, a crank begins charging down towards me.

I glare at the monster before running towards it. I angrily shout, using as much energy to swing my crowbar at the cranks head. The end of the crowbar collides with the side of its head, getting stuck in its skull. The crank screams, slumping on the edge of the escalator. Not taking any chances, I rush at it and use my strength to push the crank over the railing, letting it fall to the ground far below.

"Bloody hell, y/n." Newt mumbles, looking up at me with wide eyes as I pant heavily.

"He got in my way." I shrug, catching my breath.

"Jack!" Frypan shouts from the bottom of the escalator.

I look over Newt and watch with wide eyes as Jack dangles from the railing with a crank hanging on his legs. But before anyone can do anything to help him, another crank jumps over the railing and onto Jack, taking him and the other monster down.

"Keep going!" Newt orders, pushing me up again.

My group meets up with Thomas and Teresa at the top of both escalators as we continue running.

"Where the hell are we gonna go?!" Minho asks beside me as we lead the group along the second floor of the shopping mall.

"We gotta find a way out of here!" Frypan frantically exclaims.

I quickly scan the pathway in front of us, trying to spot stairs or a window, anything to get us out.

The sudden sound of crashing glass and something hitting the ground behind me gains my attention. Everyone turns and freezes as we notice someone from our group is pinned down by a crank, my heart dropping as I see who.

"Newt!" Thomas and I shout in sync.

I push past everyone and rush towards Newt as he struggles to keep the crank from biting him.

Before I can get there, Thomas grabs my shoulder and pushes me behind him. He runs to Newt and kicks the crank off of the blond boy. The monster smashes against the glass balcony, shattering it and tumbling off the second story.

"Newt! Are you okay?!" I worriedly ask, helping him up before grabbing his face and checking for any scratches, thankfully finding none.

"I'm okay." he reassures, grabbing my hands from his face. He keeps our hands connected as he turns to Thomas. "Thanks Tommy."

"Okay, we gotta keep going!" Thomas shouts, shoving Newt and I ahead of him as the cranks chasing us get closer.

"Up here!" Minho calls from the front of the group. "Go through here!"  
Minho quickly motions for us to head down a long hallway. "Hurry! They're coming!"

Newt tugs me down the creepy, dark hall as we rush through it, checking every door we pass to see if its unlocked.

"Keep going!" Teresa shouts as Thomas turns a doorknob, only for it to be locked.

"They're right behind us! Go! Go! Go!" Winston exclaims as the cranks turn the corner further down the hall. He pushes the group from behind as they get closer.

"It's a dead end!" Minho calls, frantically pushing on the bar to open the double doors.

As Thomas shoves the door, it starts to open a bit, the moonlight from outside peeking through the small crack.  
"This one!" Thomas shouts.

Thomas, Minho, and Newt frantically kick and slam against the door, attempting to break the lock on the other side.

"I'll hold them back!" Winston shouts, pulling the gun out of his pocket. He aims down the hall and begins shooting at the cranks.

I feel helpless, watching as the boys try to get the door open and occasionally glancing over Winstons shoulder at the oncoming hoard. I watch him take a couple at the front out, but it's barely slowing them down, only a few more seconds until they reach us.

"Frypan get in there!" I shout at him.

He nods, getting the others to move before ramming the door, getting it open on his first try.

"Come on! Let's go!" Minho shouts as him and Frypan rush through the open door.

Newt grabs my hand and once again tugs me behind him as we run through the indoor parking lot.   
The two of us suddenly stop and turn as someone from our group lets out a bloodcurdling scream that echos throughout the parking lot.

"Winston!" I exclaim, rushing back to help as the cranks grab ahold of him and try to drag him back through the door that Minho and Thomas are pushing on.

Newt and I each grab ahold of his arms, trying to pull him from the cranks as they try to pull him from us, like a horrific game of tug of war.   
My eyes widen as the cranks dig their claws into Winstons exposed stomach, causing him to scream in agony.

"Keep pulling!" Thomas orders us.

After a couple more tugs, we free him from the cranks grasps, pulling him away before lifting him up.

"Go! Go!" Thomas shouts as him and Minho struggle to hold the door closed much longer.

Newt and I each put one of Winston's arms around our shoulders, dragging him along as he cries in pain. He begins to help us by running as fast as he can, still needing us to support most of his weight.

Once we have a good head start, Thomas and Minho stop holding the door and sprint after us. I take a quick glance over my shoulder at the hoard of cranks flooding through the door and chasing us.

Thomas and Minho catch up to us as we climb down through the broken pieces of concrete and into the dark, hoping the cranks won't see which way we went.

"Under here." Aris whispers, guiding us to a hidden spot under a ledge.

Newt and I set Winston down beside Frypan before everyone huddles together, Newt tightly grasping my hand.

Thomas shakily shushes us as he and Minho turn their flashlights off.

As we all struggle to catch our breath as quietly as possible, we listen to the shrieks of the cranks just above us. I listen as they loudly run around and scream, angry that they've lost their food.

I let out a shaky sigh of relief as they seem to go away for now, however I don't let my guard down, they could come back at anytime.

After a couple minutes of waiting everyone begins to lay down, Newt lets go of my hand and instead, puts his arms around my waist from behind. He pulls me against him and holds onto me tightly. I sink into his warm embrace, shifting so that I can lay my head against his chest.

I soon let my eyes close and fall asleep on his chest, listening to calming sound of his heartbeat.


	16. Chapter Sixteen: Goodbye Old Friend

I groan as I'm awoken by Thomas yelling at something to get away. Grumbling, I keep my eyes shut tight and bury my face further into the warm and comfy material I'm lying against. Suddenly, the warm object starts moving slowly.  
Wait, what?

My eyes widen and I shoot up into a sitting position. I look down and see Newts arm outstretched on the ground as he rests on his back, still sleeping. His soft blond hair hangs messily in front of his eyes, I'm almost tempted to brush it away, and his chest slowly rises and falls as he peacefully sleeps.

I turn to my right and see Thomas and Minho sitting up and staring at me. Judging by their raised eyebrows and large smirks, they saw the way I was cuddled up against Newt.

"So you and the brit, huh?" Minho teases. "Always thought it'd be me."

I feel my face redden at his words.  
"N-no. I must've rolled over in my sleep." I quickly deny, turning away to hide the blush from the two boys.  
I suddenly furrow my brows as I process the last thing he said. "And no way you dumb shank!"

My shout causes the others to suddenly start waking up. I scoot over as Newt sits up, not wanting any of the others to see us squished up together.

Newt rubs his eyes and looks up at Thomas, whose now standing and looking around. "Are they gone?" the blond asks.

"Yeah." Thomas mutters. "We should be safe for now."

Once everyone has gotten up Thomas starts grabbing his pack. "We need to get going."

I yawn, stretching as I reach for my pack sitting beside me. I stand and put my jacket that I used as a blanket, back on. Even though I was warm enough next to Newt.  
I quickly shake that thought out of my head. We need to focus on getting away from Wicked and getting to those people in the mountains.

I turn around when I hear Winston grunting as he tries to get himself up, but he's too weak and just slumps back to the ground with a huff.  
I frown, my face falling as I watch Frypan help him up, Winston grimacing in pain the entire time.

Newt tugs on my arm and motions with his head to follow after Thomas, whose already climbing up the fallen cement. Our group leaves the little shelter we hid in and start making our way up the rubble too.

I squint and shield my eyes from the sun with my hand as I get to the top. As my eyes adjust to the bright light, I gasp, looking up at the towering broken buildings. Last night it was too dark and I was too busy being chased by cranks to even notice how much everything has been broken and completely destroyed by the elements.

We climb down to a main road that goes straight through the crumbling city.

"How could all this happen?" I ask, looking at the rubble covering the entire city.

"No idea." Newt mumbles ahead of me. "But it doesn't look like anyones been here in a long time."

"What if the entire world is like this?" Aris worriedly asks.

"I sure hope not." Minho sighs. "It'll be one depressing world."

"Well, it's already been depressing, so nothing new there." I replied, trying to throw a slight joke out there, even if its completely true.

Thomas suddenly stops. "Hang on guys."

We all turn and watch him in confusion as he pauses and stares at nothing.

"Do you hear that?" he asks, looking around.

I frown, hearing nothing except for the slight breeze blowing past me. I'm about to call Thomas insane until I feel a low rumbling and the faint sound of a burg as it gets closer.

"Get down!" Thomas orders. "Everybody hide!"

I quickly follow after Minho, ducking and taking shelter under a large piece of concrete thats been broken. I crouch down beside Minho, listening as the rumbling of the berg's propellers gets closer.

I slightly peek my head out from under the shelter, watching as the large aircraft and two helicopters fly past us. As the berg gets farther away, the noise dies down until we're left with only the sound of sand being blown around by the wind.

"I'm guessing they won't be letting us go that easily." I sigh, already tired just thinking about how much running away we'll be doing.

Thomas shakes his head. "Lets just keep going."

Once we're sure they're not coming back, we all crawl out from our hiding spot. Thomas guides us straight through the broken down city before we have to start climbing rubble thats in our way. I groan looking up at the tall mountain we have to climb.

I stay at the back of the group, following behind Winston to make sure he's able to get up himself. It's hard watching him struggle, panting heavily after only a minute. But he refuses to let us help, telling us he can do it on his own.

He suddenly stops, bending over with one hand on his bandaged stomach and the other on his thigh. I rush up behind him as he begins coughing, causing Frypan to turn and rush back down to him too.

"Winston, please let us help you." I beg, gently putting my hand on his back.  
I glance up and notice everyone has stopped to wait for us, watching with worried expressions.

"Yeah man, let us make it easier on you." Fry says gently.

Winston tiredly looks up at us. He looks at both of our pained expressions, then up towards the others as they wait further up the hill, their faces full of worry.  
He sighs, hanging his head down. "Okay."

Frypan nods at me and we both take one of Winstons arms and wrap it over our shoulders. With both of us helping, we make it up and over the hill of rubble much quicker, only to climb a tall sand dune.

The rest of the group waits for us at the top of the dune, looking off into the distance ahead of us. The three of us get to the top, needing to drop Winstons arms down as we catch our breath.

"Those mountains, thats gotta be it." Thomas says, pointing very far into the distance. "Thats where we need to go."

The mountains are barely visible from where we are, covered by a light layer of clouds. Getting there we'll have to walk for miles through broken buildings and over countless sand dunes, all under the scorching sun.

"Thats a long way off." Newt mumbles beside Thomas.

Thomas nods his head, agreeing. "Well, we better get moving."

I adjust my backpack strap before taking a step over the top of the sand dune.

Suddenly, Winston collapses beside me, slightly falling down the dune.

"Winston!" I worriedly shout, my eyes widening as I crouch beside him on the ground.

"Hey, Winston!" Thomas exclaims, sliding to a stop beside the poor boy. Thomas lifts his head up out of the sand as the rest of our group worriedly gathers around.

Winston takes quick and shallow breaths, his eyes shut tight from the pain.

"He's been hurt bad." Minho mumbles.

"Thomas, what do we do?" Teresa asks, holding Winstons head in her hands.

Thomas looks up towards the mountains, then back down at our friend as he struggles to breathe. "We need to carry him there. We can't leave him."

"We can't possible carry him all the way there, even if we do take turns." Newt points out.

"We can make something like a stretcher." I say, standing up and looking back at the crumbling buildings behind us. "We can find some stuff in the rubble and in our bags to make it."

Thomas nods, agreeing with me. "Okay. Teresa and y/n, you stay here and watch over Winston. The rest of us will go look."

I nod, watching as the boys walk back towards the buildings. I sigh, sitting down beside Winston and using my body to block the sun from hitting his face. I helplessly watch him as his face scrunches up in pain. He whimpers, trying but failing to catch his breath.  
I hate seeing him like this, and I also hate feeling so helpless. Theres nothing I can do to help him, not even ease the pain.

The boys eventually return and we put together a stretcher we can drag around in the sand, making it easier for us to move Winston.

We lift Winston onto the stretcher as carefully as we can before moving again, needing to actually carry him down sand dunes.

We walk across a long stretch of land, the wind pelting our bodies with tiny pieces of sand. We finally decide to rest, stopping under broken pieces of concrete that provided enough shade for everyone.

I take a sip of water, passing it to Minho before laying my head back against the wall and closing my eyes. I hadn't realized how tired I actually was until now. Everything was quiet, no wind blasting sand at us, Cranks chasing us, the only sound I can hear is the sounds of Winstons quick and rapid breaths.

After a couple minutes, I sit back up. Teresa gets up and goes to Thomas, the two of them quietly talking in the distance. Newt stands up and leans against the wall beside me, looking at the two of them.

"Hows it looking?!" he shouts.

I peek around the corner, waiting for Thomas's response. He uses his hand to block the sun as he looks at the mountains from the top of the hill thats blocking our view.

"Just a little further." he calls back, sounding unsure.

Newt looks back at us, shaking his head. "That's not very convincing." he mumbles, taking a seat beside me.

I tiredly lay my head on Newts shoulder. "I hope we make it to the Right Arm." I mumble. "I'm tired of Wicked always watching and controlling us."

"Me too." Minho says, stretching. He moves his arms behind his head and lays back. "I'm done with those dirty shanks."

"They put us through too bloody much." Newt huffs. "Those bastards."

I smile slightly, letting my eyes droop closed before the sound of a gunshot suddenly goes off, making me jump and look around.

"Hey!" Frypan shouts, rushing towards Winston.

Panicking, I watch Winston in shock as Aris hurries Thomas and Teresa back to us. Why would he shoot the gun?

"Whats going on?" Newt asks Frypan, who was sitting the closest to Winston before he shot the gun.

"I have no idea!" Frypan exclaims, putting his hands up, one of which has the gun in it. "He just woke up and grabbed the gun, and then he tried to..." he slowly quiets down as Winston crawls onto his hands and knees.

I watch with wide eyes as he throws up black sludge, coughing before he lays back down, breathing even heavier than before.

We slowly surround him, worried about what's happening.

Winston looks up at us. "Its, growing..." he pants.  
He grabs the bottom of his shirt and lifts it up, exposing his torn and mangled stomach. Dark, black veins reach across his entire stomach, meaning he's obviously sick, incase the black vomit and weakness wasn't a sign at all.  
"...inside of me." he cries.

I gasp, covering my mouth with my hand. Needing to look away before I get sick, I burry my face in Newts shoulder.

I turn back once he's put his shirt back down, covering his stomach. He continues to pant as we just stare at him, unsure of what we can do to help him.

Thats's all I want to do. I want to be able to help him, no one good should have to feel the pain he's going through right now.

"I'm not gonna make it." Winston chokes out.

I anxiously gulp. Those are definitely the words none of us want to hear right now.

Winston reaches his hand out towards the gun in Frypans hand. "Please..." he begs. "Please don't let me turn into one of those things."

I feel a tear silently slide down my cheek. Nobody moves.

Winston tiredly puts his arm back down, sighing. He's begging for us to let him kill himself. Someone I've known for basically my whole life, is asking to end his life. I've seen so many things back in the Glade, experienced too many painful memories of watching people I knew die in front of me. I've watched one of my best friends attempt to take his own life, and I've even felt that way. I've felt so broken and hopeless that I just wanted out.

At this point, I'm used to death, knowing the pain it brings to everyone. But isn't it for the best if you're in too much pain and theres nothing you can do about it. If he's in that much pain, and he knows he won't make it, then theres only one thing to do.

I walk past Newt and Thomas, approaching Frypan. I sadly look him in the eyes as I grab his hands, taking the gun out of them. I turn to Winston, tightly holding the gun in my hand.

"Y/n..." Thomas starts, but Newt stops him, putting his hand out and shaking his head.

I slowly fall to my knees beside Winston, staring into his eyes for the last time. I gently grab his hand, putting the gun in it, then moving it to rest on his chest.

He looks up at me and smiles weakly. "Thank you y/n..." he whispers.

I shake my head, more tears flowing. No matter how many times I experience someone I know dying, it never gets any easier.

"I'm so sorry-" I sniff, wiping my tears away as more take their place. "I'm sorry I can't do anything."

He shakes his head. "You've all done enough." he reassures me. "Now go."

"Goodbye Winston." I whisper before getting up. I turn away, grabbing my bag and quickly getting out of there. I'm soon followed by Newt and the others.

We walk in a straight line across the dunes, everyone staying silent and spread apart.

Suddenly, a gunshot goes off in the distance, causing all of us to freeze. I look back in the direction we just came from, silent tears streaming down my face. He did it, he's gone.

I lock eyes with Newt and he walks up to me. I stare into his brown, glossy eyes. He may not show it as much but I know he's in pain.

He gently pulls me into a comforting hug that lasts only a couple seconds. I wipe the tears from my face as he pulls away and we all continue walking in silence. The loss of a friend weighing everybody down like a ton of bricks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my wattpad is @-abbieeee-   
> this story is currently on hold , go check out the story i’m working on now! ^ it’s on my wattpad

**Author's Note:**

> My wattpad is @-abbieeee-


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